(tumbles, tumbling, tumbled)
1.
If someone or something tumbles somewhere, they fall there with a rolling or bouncing movement.
A small boy tumbled off a third floor fire escape...
He fell to the ground, and the gun tumbled out of his hand.
VERB: V prep/adv, V prep/adv
•
Tumble is also a noun.
He injured his ribs in a tumble from his horse.
N-COUNT: usu sing
2.
If prices or levels of something are tumbling, they are decreasing rapidly. (JOURNALISM)
House prices have tumbled by almost 30 per cent in real terms since mid-1989...
Share prices continued to tumble today on the Tokyo stock market.
...tumbling inflation.
VERB: V by/from/to amount, V, V-ing
•
Tumble is also a noun.
Oil prices took a tumble yesterday.
N-COUNT: usu sing
3.
If water tumbles, it flows quickly over an uneven surface.
Waterfalls crash and tumble over rocks.
...the aromatic pines and tumbling streams of the Zonba Plateau.
VERB: V prep, V-ing
4.
If you say that someone tumbles into a situation or place, you mean that they get into it without being fully in control of themselves or knowing what they are doing. (mainly BRIT)
Many mothers and children tumble into poverty after divorce...
VERB: V into n
5.