[f. as prec. + -ING1.] The action of TUMBLE v. in various senses.
a. 1425. Cursor M., 13195 (Trin.). In euel tyme bigan she tomblyng To make his heed of be brouȝt.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 506/1. Tumlynge, volutacio.
1523. Fitzherb., Husb., § 102. It apperethe by stampynge of the horse or tomblynge.
c. 1580. Jefferie, Bugbears, Epil., Song ii., in Archiv Stud. Neu. Spr. (1897). With joomblynges, with foomblynges, with toomblynges.
1611. Cotgr., Basteleuse, a woman that makes a profession of Jugling, Tumbling, and such other idle, or base exercises.
1660. Burney, Κέρδ. Δῶρον (1661), 30. The tumblings of the Leviathan in the Seas.
1687. Fountainhall, Decis. (1759), I. 440. Physicians attested the employment of tumbling would kill her.
a. 1774. Tucker, Lt. Nat. (1834), II. 456. Lucretius … granted that the atoms,… after infinite tumblings and tossings about, would fall into their former situation.
18[?]. Nursery Rhyme.
| The man in the moon | |
| Came tumbling down. |
1870. Lowell, Study Wind., 2. We can explain the odd tumbling of rooks in the air.
b. Tumbling home: the inward inclination of the upper part of a ship’s sides; opposed to FLARE sb.1 4; see TUMBLE v. 11. Also tumbling-in.
1664. E. Bushnell, Compl. Shipwright, 11. Then set off the Tumbling Home, at the Height of the two first Haanses.
1769. Falconer, Dict. Marine (1789), Encabanement, the tumbling-home of a ship’s side from the lower-deck-beam upwards, to the gunnel.
1832. Encycl. Amer., XI. 367/2. Nothing can be urged in favor of tumbling in … but that it brings the guns nearer the centre.
c. 1850. Rudim. Navig. (Weale), 157. The topsides of three-decked ships have the greatest tumbling-home, for the purpose of clearing the upper works from the smoke and fire of the lower guns.
