gambol

English

Etymology

From earlier gambolde, from Middle French gambade (modern gambade).

Pronunciation

• (UK, US) IPA^(key): /ˈɡæm.bəl/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -æmbəl
• Homophone: gamble

Verb

gambol (third-person singular simple present gambols, present participle (UK) gambolling or (US) gamboling, simple past and past participle (UK) gambolled or (US) gamboled)

1. (intransitive) To move about playfully; to frolic.
   • 1835: William Gilmore Simms, The Partisan: A Romance of the Revolution, chapter XI, page 134 (Harper)

     The lawn spread freely onward, as of old, over which, in sweet company, he had once gambolled.

   • 1907, Paul Lafargue, The rights of the horse, page 160:

     […] she remains near him to suckle him and teach him to choose the delicious grasses of the meadow, in which he gambols until he is grown.

   • 1945 May, George Orwell, chapter 2, in Animal Farm: A Fairy Story, London: Secker & Warburg, OCLC 3655473:

     In the ecstasy of that thought they gambolled round and round, they hurled themselves into great leaps of excitement.

   • 1948, F. H. Lyon, chapter 5, in Kon-Tiki, translation of original by Thor Heyerdahl, ISBN 1-56849-010-0, page 143:

     [The whales] quite enjoyed themselves gamboling freely among the waves in the sunshine.

   • 1995, Neal Stephenson, The Diamond Age: or a Young Lady’s Illustrated Primer, ISBN 0553380966, page 286:

     Three girls moved across the billiard-table lawn of a great manor house, circling and swarming about a common center of gravity like gamboling sparrows.

2. (Britain, West Midlands) To do a forward roll.

Translations

to move about playfully

• Bulgarian: подскачам от радост (podskačam ot radost)
• Finnish: kirmata, kirmailla (fi)

• French: gambader (fr)
• Maori: tuapa, tākarokaro

to do a forward roll

• Finnish: tehdä kuperkeikka

Noun

gambol (plural gambols)

1. An instance of running or skipping about playfully.
   • 1843, Edgar Allan Poe, The Gold Bug, page 10:

     When his gambols were over, I looked at the paper, and, to speak the truth, found myself not a little puzzled at what my friend had depicted.

2. An instance of more general frisking or frolicking.
   • 1819, Washington Irving, The Sketch Book, The Voyage:

     There was a delicious sensation of mingled security and awe with which I looked down, from my giddy height, on the monsters of the deep at their uncouth gambols.

Translations

instance

• Bulgarian: подскок m (podskok)
• Finnish: kirmailu

• French: gambade (fr) f
• Maori: tuapa