[f. TUMBLE v. + -ER1.]
1. One who performs feats of agility and strength, somersaults, leaps, and gymnastics; an acrobat.
a. 1340. Hampole, Psalter, xxxix. 6. Hoppynge & daunceynge of tumblers and herlotis.
c. 1380. Wyclif, Sel. Wks., III. 352. Mynystrel or joȝelour, tumbler and harlot.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 506/1. Tumlare (P. tumblar), volutator (S. volutatrix).
1581. Pettie, Guazzo’s Civ. Conv., II. (1586), 57 b. Certaine vearses like us verie well,… when we heare some tumbler or dauncer sing them to the Harpe.
1614. Raleigh, Hist. World, V. vi. § 7. A tricke of climing vpon mens heads, somewhat after the manner of our tumblers.
1840. Dickens, Old C. Shop, xl. Kit faced about on the ladder like some dexterous tumbler.
1874. Blackie, Self-Cult., 16. Dexterous riders and expert tumblers in the circus.
2. A dog like a small greyhound, formerly used to catch rabbits; a lurcher. So called from its action in taking its quarry: see quots. Obs. exc. Hist.
1519. Horman, Vulg., 377. Tumblers, houndes, that can goo an huntynge by them selfe: brynge home theyr praye.
1576. Fleming, trans. Caius’ Dogs (1880), 11. This sorte of Dogges … we … call Tvmblers, because in hunting they turne and tumble, winding their bodyes about in circle wise…. He … so prouideth … that the selly simple Conny is debarred quite from his hole.
1646. Sir T. Browne, Pseud. Ep., IV. v. 187. Men observe that the eye of a Tumbler is biggest not constantly in one, but in the bearing side.
1688. R. Holme, Armoury, II. 185/1. The Tumbler, or Lurcher is … in shape like the Grey-hound.
1766. Pennant, Zool. (1768), I. 54. The Vertagus, or Tumbler,… took its prey by mere subtility.
1847–78. Halliwell, Tumbler, a dog formerly employed for taking rabbits. This it effected by tumbling itself about in a careless manner till within reach of the prey, and then seizing it by a sudden spring.
1897. Q. Rev., Jan., 141. Dogs are no longer trained as ‘Norfolk tumblers,’ to attract the rabbits on the warrens by their quaint antics.
† b. transf. applied to a person; spec. one who allures or inveigles persons into the hands of swindlers (slang). Obs.
1601. B. Jonson, Poetaster, I. ii. Away, setter, away. Yet, stay, my little tumbler.
a. 1700. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, Tumbler,… one that Decoys, or draws others into Play.
1785. Grose, Dict. Vulg. T., Tumbler,… a sharper employed to draw in pigeons to game.
† c. The six of trumps in the game of gleek. Obs.
1680. [see TOWSER sb. b].
1688. R. Holme, Armoury, III. xvi. (Roxb.), 73/2. Tumbler, is the sixth of the trumps.
† 3. A name of the porpoise. Obs.
1671. Marten, Voy. Spitzbergen, in Acc. Sev. Late Voy., II. (1694), 125. They are not Sword-fish, nor of the same kind we call Tumblers.
1808–12. J. Walker, Ess. Nat. Hist., 532. Delphinus Phocaena.… Porpesse … Scot. Pellock. Tumbler.
4. A variety of domestic pigeon characterized by the habit or faculty of turning over and over backwards during its flight.
1678. Ray, Willughby’s Ornith., II. xv. § 2. 182. Pigeons…. Tumblers … are small, and of divers colours. They have strange motions, turning themselves backward over their Heads, and shew like footbals in the Air.
1859. Darwin, Orig. Spec., i. (1878), 16. The common tumbler has the singular inherited habit of flying at a great height in a compact flock, and tumbling in the air head over heels.
5. One who tumbles or falls. nonce-use.
1904. Daily Chron., 1 March, 6/3. It was real hockey…; when a collision brought a tumble, the tumbler took the accident like a lady.
6. A drinking cup, originally having a rounded or pointed bottom, so that it could not be set down until emptied; often of silver or gold; now, a tapering cylindrical, or barrel-shaped, glass cup without a handle or foot, having a heavy flat bottom.
1664. Pepys, Diary, 20 Oct. Thence home, taking two silver tumblers home, which I have bought.
1689. Lond. Gaz., No 2485/4. A Gold Tumbler of 100 l. value.
1698. B. Bullivant, in Phil. Trans., XX. 168. I put a Straw for a Perch into a Venice Glass Tumbler.
1779. Black, in Phil. Trans., LXXIII. *305. A common tumbler or water-glass.
1842. S. Lover, Handy Andy, iii. I thought there was no tumbler but a tumbler for punch.
1865. Lubbock, Preh. Times, 136. Rings of pottery … evidently intended to serve as supports for these earthenware tumblers.
1878. W. F. Collier, Tales O. Eng. Life, 79. The cups began to circle again, this time much quicker than before, for the drinkers were supplied with tumblers, or glass vessels, which, being rounded at the base, could not stand upright, and must, therefore, be emptied at a draught.
1886. G. R. Sims, Ring o’ Bells, etc., I. Prol. 1. The tumblers were rattled upon the table.
b. The contents of a tumbler; a tumblerful.
1831. J. Davies, Manual Mat. Med., 150. From two to five tumblers pure or mixed with any other drink, every morning.
1873. Black, Pr. Thule, v. Mackenzie mixed another tumbler of toddy.
c. A toy, usually representing a grotesque squatting figure, having the center of gravity low and the base rounded so as to continue rocking when touched; cf. MANDARIN 1 b. rare.
1851. Mayhew, Lond. Labour (1861), II. 504/1. Her legs tucked up mysteriously under her gown into a round ball, so that her figure resembled in shape the plaster tumblers sold by the Italians.
7. = TUMBREL1 3, 3 b; cf. tumbler-cart in 14. slang and dial.
1673. R. Head, Canting Acad., 16. (Flaugg’d at the Tumbler) whipt at the Carts-arse.
1692. Luttrell, Brief Rel. (1857), II. 534. They had on board 200 horses for the artillery,… 40 feild pieces, 80 tumblers.
a. 1700. [see SHOVE v. 10].
1757. Washington, Lett., Writ. 1889, I. 490. Choose me … as much thread as is necessary,… and send them up by John who comes down with a Tumbler for that purpose.
1799. Robertson, Agric. Perth, 92. The shafts had two pins that embraced the axle and made these awkward wheels tumble along; from which circumstance they were named tumblers.
a. 1814. Ramsay, Scot. & Scotsm. in 18th C. (1888), II. x. 199. Tumblers, a trifling species of carts which have for ages been used about Alloa for transporting coals to the shore.
1815. Scott, Guy M., viii. Small carts or tumblers, as they were called in that country.
8. Geol. A detached mass of rock; a rolled stone or boulder. Now only dial.
1789. Mills, in Phil. Trans., LXXX. 77. On the surface are tumblers of red granite, and some few of lava. Ibid., 80. The bottom of the glen is covered with large tumblers of lava.
1799. Kirwan, Geol. Ess., i. 209. That [sandstone] … must also be primary, though it contains tumblers (caillous roulés).
1876. H. B. Woodward, Geol. Eng. & Wales, x. 305, note. In the eastern part of North Wales the boulders are called ‘Granite tumblers.’
1894. Northumbld. Gloss., Tumbler, Tumler, a boulder, a detached block of stone.
9. With capital T: A Dunker or Tunker (see DUNKER1): in allusion to their method of baptism. U.S.
1795. Morse, Amer. Geog., I. 23. They are also called Tumblers, from the manner in which they perform baptism, which is by putting the person, while kneeling, head first under water, so as to resemble the motion of the body in the action of tumbling.
† 10. One who tumbles or tosses things into confusion or disorder; a muddler; one who turns something over confusedly. Obs. rare.
1580. Hollyband, Treas. Fr. Tong, Brouilleur, ou qui Brouille, a tumbler togither, a slubberer.
1694. Motteux, Rabelais, IV. lxiv. (1737), 260. Tumblers of Beads, Mumblers of Ave Marias.
† 11. A class of street ruffians; see quot., and cf. MOHOCK. Obs.
1712. Steele, Spect., No. 324, ¶ 1. The Mohock Club…. A third sort are the Tumblers, whose office it is to set Women on their Heads.
1878. Lecky, Eng. in 18th C. (1883), I. 482. The ‘tumblers,’ whose favourite amusement was to set women on their heads and commit various indecencies and barbarities on the limbs that were exposed.
12. a. = Tumble-dung (see TUMBLE-). b. The aquatic larva of the mosquito or other species of the Culicidæ: see quot. 1858–63. U.S.
1807–8. W. Irving, Salmag., xv. (1824), 282. The aspiring politician may be compared to that indefatigable insect, called the tumbler,… which … forms a little ball, which it rolls laboriously along.
1858–63. Ripley & Dana, Amer. Cycl., VIII. 317/1. They are changed into pupæ, called tumblers from the manner in which they roll over and over in the water by means of the fin-like paddles at the end of the tail.
13. In mechanical applications.
a. In a gun-lock, a pivoted plate through which the mainspring acts on the hammer, and in the notches of which the sear engages.
1624. Althorp MS., in Simpkinson, Washingtons (1860), App. 53. For a new tumbler for a muskit locke 00 00 06.
1688. R. Holme, Armoury, III. xviii. (Roxb.), 135/1. The seuerall parts of a Fire lock and a match lock, and wheele lock…. The Tumbler.
1833. J. Holland, Manuf. Metal, II. 117. In consequence of the firm locking of the sear in the Tumbler, the gun cannot possibly go off.
1862. Catal. Internat. Exhib., II. XI. 24. The cock works in a slot in the middle of the stock; there is no tumbler.
1871. ‘Stonehenge,’ Brit. Sports, I. I. ii. § 1. Occasionally, in central-fire guns, the tumbler itself is made to propel the striker.
b. In a roasting-jack, a pawl or catch that allows a barrel to revolve in one direction independently of a wheel centered on the same axle, but which takes the wheel with it when it revolves in the other direction.
1677. Moxon, Mech. Exerc., iii. 47. The Tumbler is so placed … that while the Jack line is winding up upon the Barrel its round britch passes forwards by all the Crosses of the Main wheel…. But when the Barrel is turned the contrary way,… the Tumbler … thrusts the Main Wheel about with [it].
1688. R. Holme, Armoury, III. 323/1. [Of a jack] The Tumbler, the Center whereof moveth upon the Center Pin.
c. In a lock: † A pivoted piece through which the pressure of a spring was transmitted to the tail of the bolt, tending to keep it pushed forwards (obs.); now, a pivoted piece kept in position by a spring, with projections that drop into notches in the bolt and hold it until lifted by the proper key.
1677. Moxon, Mech. Exerc., ii. 28. The Tumbler … is a long piece of Iron,… and it hath an Hook returning at the other end of it, to fall into the breech of the Bolt, and by the spring H forces the Bolt forwards.
1792. Trans. Soc. Arts (ed. 2), III. 166. The tumbler and tail of the latch or spring bolt.
1833. J. Holland, Manuf. Metal, II. 277. Mr. Kemp … published in 1816, a lock, the interior security of which consists in the adaptation of tumblers or sliders.
1911. J. Ward, Roman Era in Brit., xiii. 238. The lock had both wards and tumblers.
d. Naut. App. a sleeve or cap fitted on a mast, with a hook, ring, or swivel to afford means of attachment, etc.; see also quot. 1877.
1867. Smyth, Sailor’s Word-bk., Tumbler,… contrivance to avoid the necessity of having copper nailed on the mast to prevent a gaff from chafing it.
1877. Knight, Dict. Mech., Tumbler (Nautical), one of the movable pins with which the cathead-stopper and shank-painter are respectively engaged.
1882. Nares, Seamanship (ed. 6), 9. There is a tumbler on each cap to connect the conductors of the two masts together. Ibid., 121. A … derrick … working on a swivel tumbler on the mast.
e. A revolving barrel, or a barrel with a rotating paddle, used in tanning skins; also, a tumbling-box.
1857. Encycl. Brit. (ed. 8), XIII. 310/2. They [lamb-skins] are first fed with alum and salt in a drum or tumbler made like a huge churn.
1877. Knight, Dict. Mech., Tumbler,… a vertically rotating case for cleaning castings placed within it.
1883. R. Haldane, Workshop Receipts, Ser. II. 367/2. After leaving the press, they [the skins] are put into a ‘tumbler,’ or revolving barrel.
1891. Sadtler, Hand-bk. Industr. Org. Chem., x. (1900), 329. The tanning was formerly done with sumach and gambier, either in revolving paddle ‘tumblers’ … or according to the English method.
f. Each of the stickers of a tumbler-coupler in an organ (see 14).
1881. W. E. Dickson, Organ-Build., xii. 754. A slender bridge, having as many notches as keys in the manual, and fitted with short stickers called tumblers.
g. Coal-mining. A tipper; cf. tumbling tom (TUMBLING-).
1883. Gresley, Coal-mining Gloss., Tumbler, (S[cotland]), see Tipper.
1886. J. Barrowman, Sc. Mining Terms, 69. Tumbler, tipping apparatus for tubs or waggons.
h. In a clock or watch: see quot.
1884. F. J. Britten, Watch & Clockm., 110. [A] Tumbler [is] a revolving finger that in striking clocks and repeating watches moves the rack one tooth for each blow struck.
i. In some looms, each of the levers from which the heddles are suspended.
1891. in Cent. Dict.
14. attrib. and Comb., as tumbler bitch, -brush (sense 6), fancier, -glass, lock, -maker, movement (cf. tumbler-coupler), pigeon, -pin, -pivot, -screw; tumbler-shaped adj.; tumbler-bearing, a bearing that automatically falls out of position to make way for a gear travelling upon the shaft which it supports; tumbler-beds, pl., a local name for the loose crumbly upper portion of the carboniferous limestone; tumbler-cart = sense 7; tumbler closet: see quot.; tumbler-coupler, a unison manual coupler in an organ in which the connection between each two keys is made by a short sticker (see 13 f) which turns over at an angle when not in use; tumbler-cup, a cup with a rounded bottom: cf. sense 6; tumbler dog = sense 2 (obs.); also, a catch or detent in a padlock that retains the hasp (Forney, Car-Builder’s Dict., 1884); tumbler-drum, = sense 13 e; tumbler-holder, a metal frame in which a tumbler of drink is served (Knight, Dict. Mech., 1877); tumbler-music, music produced with tumblers or ‘musical glasses’; tumbler-punch: see quot.; tumbler-stand, a tray on which tumblers are automatically rinsed (Knight); tumbler switch, an electric switch operated by pushing over a small spring tumbler or thumb-piece; tumbler-tank, a flushing cistern having two compartments, one of which when filled tilts the other into the position for filling and empties itself (Cent. Dict., 1891); tumbler-washer, a stand with jets of water for rinsing tumblers (Knight).
1901. J. Black’s Carp. & Build., Scaffolding, 60. We have power transmitted with square shaft, with *tumbler bearings bolted to the walls of a building.
1821. W. Forster, Section of Strata (ed. 2), 103. About sixteen feet of the upper part of [the Great Limestone] is called the *Tumbler Beds.
1630. Lond. Gaz., No. 1481/4. Lost … a white *Tumbler Bitch with yellow ears.
1877. Knight, Dict. Mech., *Tumbler-brush.
1880. D. Murray, Old Cardross, 38. The only wheeled vehicles known prior to that time [c. 1763] were *tumbler carts, which were simply sledges mounted on small wheels … made solid … united by a wooden axle, and all turning round together.
1888. Q. Rev., July, 38. Sledges were used…, more recently tumbler carts with solid wheels, mere slabs of timber.
1870. Corfield, Treatm. Sewage, 123. The *‘Tumbler’ closet…. In this there is … a trough running under the privy-seats…; the water trickles into a swinging basin at the upper end, which is so constructed that it capsizes when full and washes out the contents of the trough into the drain.
1876–98. Stainer & Barrett, Dict. Mus. Terms, 342/2. The *tumbler coupler is now almost obsolete.
1900. Westm. Gaz., 7 March, 1/3. A pair of *tumbler cups 1698, 10 oz. Ibid. (1908), 27 March, 8/1. A Georgian plain tumbler-cup,… weighing. 4oz. 13dwt.
1675. Lond. Gaz., No. 1022/4. Lost … a white *Tumbler Dog, both Ears spotted with red.
1883. R. Haldane, Workshop Receipts, Ser. II. 373/1. The skins are either trodden in it with the feet, or put into a *tumbler-drum.
1854. Poultry Chron., II. 276/1. The Almond *Tumbler fancier, whose ‘little wonders’ cannot feed their own young!
1831. Brewster, Nat. Magic, viii. (1833), 194. Stretch a thin sheet of wet paper … over the mouth of a *tumbler-glass with a footstalk.
1844. J. T. Hewlett, Parsons & W., xi. A tumbler-glass of iced punch.
1833. Loudon, Encycl. Archit., § 1585. 3-inch brass *tumbler lock and key on each door.
1881. Young, Ev. Man his own Mechanic, § 1488. A lock of better and more complicated construction … called a tumbler lock.
1902. Westm. Gaz., 29 March, 9/1. Under the present rule the *tumbler-makers must keep on working just as long as the fancy glass makers continue to work.
1881. C. A. Edwards, Organs, 112. The means provided to effect this coupling was called the *‘tumbler’ movement.
1893. F. F. Moore, I Forbid Banns (1899), 150. She thought the *tumbler-music very interesting.
1688. R. Holme, Armoury, II. 244/2. The *Tumbler Pigeon is small and of diverse colours.
1890. Science-Gossip, XXVI. 215/2. A tumbler-pigeon hatched out a Minorca chicken, a hen having laid in the pigeon-box.
1853. Ure, Dict. Arts, II. 251. The lock outside,… a, the plate; b, the cock; c, the *tumbler-pin.
1881. Greener, Gun, 264. The tumbler-pin is first turned out, and by means of a wire punch inserted in the hole, the tumbler is knocked away from both hammers and lock-plate. Ibid. (1892), Breech Loader, 116 Knock in the *tumbler-pivot half-way.
1877. Knight, Dict. Mech., *Tumbler-punch..., a small two-bladed punch used for pushing the arbor of the tumbler, the band-springs, etc., from their seats, in taking a gun apart.
1856. ‘Stonehenge,’ Brit. Sports, I. I. ii. (ed. 2), 19/1. The various parts of the lock [of a gun] are … 5th, the *tumbler-screw, which fastens the tumbler and cock together.
1862. Catal. Internat. Exhib., II. XI. 16. The loop upon each barrel receiving the end of a steel *tumbler-shaped bolt.
1907. Installation News, April, 16/1. A new form of *tumbler Switch.
