Other forms: tumbling, tumbled, tumbles
To tumble is to fall while turning over — not a clean drop but a roll. A toddler off the bottom step, a suitcase out of the overhead locker, a mug of pencils going over the edge of the desk.
Water tumbles down a hillside, and prices tumble on bad news, meaning they drop fast and far. Gymnasts tumble on purpose: tumbling is the somersaulting part of the sport, done in a line across the mat. A tumble dryer earns its name by turning clothes over and over in warm air. There is a noun — she took a tumble on the ice — and a British phrase, tumble to something, meaning to work it out at last. Rough and tumble is the other fixed one: the rough and tumble of the playground, or of politics.
1verbtumbleTo fall while rolling or turning over.
“The bag tumbled off the roof rack at the first roundabout.”
2verbquicklyTo fall quickly and by a large amount.
“Share prices tumbled the morning the report came out.”
3verbmoveTo move or pour out in a rolling, disorderly rush.
“The children tumbled out of the car and ran for the sea.”
4verbperformTo perform somersaults and handsprings.
“She learned to tumble before she could ride a bike.”
5nounfallA fall, especially one where you roll over.
“He took a nasty tumble on the wet steps.”
Too few real examples of this word to estimate which sense is commonest.
tumble is a kind of fall.
Middle English had tumben, meaning to fall, to leap, to dance, from Old English tumbian. Tumble is its frequentative — the -le ending that means doing the thing over and over. So a tumble was never one fall but a fall repeating itself, which is exactly what rolling down a slope is. Behind it sits Proto-Germanic *tūmōną, to turn.
Middle English
tumblen — to fall over and over again, tumble
English, today
tumble
From Middle English tumblen (“to fall over and over again, tumble”). From Middle English tumblen (“to fall over and over again, tumble”), frequentative of Middle English tumben (“to fall, leap, dance”), from Old English tumbian, from Proto-West Germanic tūmōn, from Proto-Germanic tūmōną (“to turn, rotate”). Cognate with Middle Dutch tumelen (whence Dutch tuimelen), Middle Low German tumelen, tummelen, German taumeln, Danish tumle, Swedish tumla, tumbla (“to tumble”), Faroese tumla, tumbla (“to walk heavily and noisily, stagger”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA