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

• Audio (UK)

  (file)

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 August 17, George Orwell [pseudonym; Eric Arthur Blair], 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, 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, 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)
• Georgian: ხტუნავს (xṭunavs), ცელქობს (celkobs), ნავარდობს (navardobs), ციგლიგებს (cigligebs)
• 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 June 23​, Geoffrey Crayon [pseudonym; Washington Irving], “The Voyage”, in The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent., number I, New York, N.Y.: […] C. S. Van Winkle, […], OCLC 1090970992, page 14:

     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.

   • 1874 October, The American Educational Monthly, page 462:

     The season of salad days has been rightly called a season of folly—rightly, because nature wisely intended salad days for folly, and we are wise to regard them as a time for folly. But are we wise when, halting upon the crutches age finds convenient after the gambols of youth have lost their attractions, we condemn this season of harmless folly to perpetual reprobation?

Translations

instance

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

• French: gambade (fr) f
• Georgian: ხტუნაობა (xṭunaoba), ცელქობა (celkoba), ციგლიგი (cigligi), ნავარდი (navardi)
• Maori: tuapa

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Tagalog

Adjective

gamból

1. badly beaten up (as of the body)
2. badly bruised (as of fruits, the body, etc.)

Derived terms

• gambulin
• gumambol