tumbling

English

Pronunciation

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Verb

tumbling

1. present participle and gerund of tumble

Noun

tumbling (plural tumblings)

1. The act of something that tumbles.
   • 1677, James Howell, The Pre-eminence and Pedigree of Parlement:

     These so many conquests must needs bring with them many tumblings and tossings, many disturbances and changes in government […]

   • 1838, Colburn's New Monthly Magazine and Humorist, page 176:

     Having feasted our souls with this sublime spectacle, we ministered to the wants of the body by a plentiful breakfast, and about noon we commenced the descent, rendered ludicrous enough by various tumblings and sprawlings on the part of the more inexpert mountaineers.

   • 1848 November – 1850 December, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 46, in The History of Pendennis. […], volumes (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1849–1850, →OCLC:

     And you have left off tumbling when you waltz now?