Also 6 iomble, -byll, ioomble, iumbyll, (gomble), (Sc. 5–6 iummil, pa. t. iwmlit; 9 jummle, pa. t. jummilt). [Known only from 16th c., and without cognate words. Prob. onomatopœic: cf. bumble, fumble, mumble, rumble, stumble, tumble.]
1. intr. To move about in mingled disorder; to flounder about in tumultuous confusion.
a. 1529. Skelton, Sp. Parrot, 419. To iumbyll, to stombyll, to tumbyll down like folys.
1532. More, Confut. Tindale, Wks. 604/2. If … Tindalles horse … falle downe in the myre … and his maister and he lye together and iumble … till some good felowe helpe them vp.
1598. Sylvester, Du Bartas, II. i. III. Furies, 271. In that fearfull Cave They [Furies] jumble, tumble, rumble, rage and rave.
1628. Ford, Lover’s Mel., III. iii. Now! my braines are a Iumbling.
1858. Carlyle, Fredk. Gt., II. xiv. His Germans … left Wenzel to jumble about in his native Bohemian element, as King there.
† b. fig. To be or become mixed up or confounded; to come together as by shaking up. Obs.
a. 1550. Christis Kirke Gr., xvi. He wes nocht wyss With sic jangleurs to jummil.
1785. Cowper, Lett., 15 Jan. But we shall jumble together again.
2. trans. To mingle together or mix up in confusion or disorder; to muddle, confuse.
1542. Boorde, Dyetary, xii. (1870), 266. If they dyd knowe what they dyd gomble togyther without trewe compoundynge.
a. 1556. Cranmer, Wks. (Parker Soc.), I. 19. You confound and jumble so together the natural members of Christ’s body in the sacrament.
1600. Holland, Livy, XXXVII. xxiii. 957. Now the reereward had no roume left them toward the land: and thus … they hastily were jumbled together.
1665. Glanvill, Def. Van. Dogm., 39. That the divided Letters of an Alphabet should be accidentally jumbled into an elegant and polite Discourse.
1779. Wesley, Hymns, Pref. 4. The hymns are not carelessly jumbled together.
1793. Burke, Rem. Policy Allies, Wks. 1842, I. 605. To jumble the innocent and guilty into one mass, by a general indemnity.
1855. Singleton, Virgil, I. Pref. 6. Jumbling up one with the other.
1868. Freeman, Norm. Conq., II. App. 562. William so jumbles together the events of 1051 and of 1055.
b. with compl. To put, bring, cast (in, out, down, etc.) in clumsy confusion or disorder. ? Obs.
c. 1555. Harpsfield, Divorce Hen. VIII. (Camden), 168. Therefore he jumbleth in a blind false reason.
a. 1652. J. Smith, Sel. Disc., iv. 72. Having once jumbled and crouded in a new kind of being.
1670–98. Lassels, Voy. Italy, I. 47. Making a man go before each Horse, lest they should jumble one-another down.
1743. H. Walpole, Lett. H. Mann (1834), I. 235. I should not like having my things jumbled out of one ship into another.
c. To make up in a confused or random manner.
1572. Buchanan, Detect. Marie, in Collect. Mary Q. Scots (1727), II. 84. Then that all Men micht understand quhat it was that thay socht … thay jumbil up mariages.
1673. Blount, World Errors, To Rdr. A Bookseller … employs some mercenary to jumble up another like book out of this.
1769. Burke, Late St. Nation, Wks. II. 14. Some strange disposition of the mind jumbled up of presumption and despair.
1812. H. & J. Smith, Rej. Addr., xiv. Call’d by a Frenchified word … that’s jumbled of antique and verd.
3. To stir up (a liquid, etc.) so as to mix the ingredients, or render turbid; to agitate, shake up, give a shaking or jolting to; hence colloq. to take for a drive. ? Obs.
1616. Surfl. & Markh., Country Farme, 63. The Horse … [would have] that which is puddly and troubled … if so be he iumble the water with his foote before he drinke.
1667. Pepys, Diary, 24 Oct. That I might go abroad with my wife, who was not well, only to jumble her.
1693. Sir T. P. Blount, Nat. Hist., 82. They bruise and jumble it [Indigo] in the Water, till the Leaf … becomes like a Kind of thick Mud.
1743–4. Mrs. Delany, Autobiog. & Corr., 6 March (1861), II. 275. You should give the child meat now:—and make him to be jumbled about a good deal.
1799. M. Underwood, Diseases Childr. (ed. 4), III. 160. As though infants must necessarily be jumbled in a cradle like travellers in a mail-coach.
1813. Shelley, in Dowden, Life (1887), I. 317. You will … be better able to see the country than when jumbled in a chaise.
absol. a. 1568. Wyf of Auchtirmwchty, 67. Than to the kyrn that he did stoure, And jwmlit at it quhill he swatt.
b. intr. To travel with shaking or jolting.
1748. Lady Luxborough, Lett. to Shenstone (1775), 36. I don’t love to jumble in a post-chaise alone.
1824. Scott, St. Ronan’s, v. Trotting Nelly … jumbled off with her cart.
1843. LeFevre, Life Trav. Phys., I. I. x. 233. Little four-wheeled narrow carts in which they jumble to the fair.
4. trans. To put into mental confusion; to confuse, bewilder, ‘muddle.’
1668. H. More, Div. Dial., III. xl. (1713), 288. My mind has been so jumbled betwixt Time and Eternity, that I think I can speak sense in neither.
1724. Ramsay, Vision, x. Oppression dois the judgment jumble.
1858–61. E. B. Ramsay, Remin., vi. (1870), 233. I like thae sermons best that jumbles the joodgment and confoonds the sense.
† 5. intr. To make a confused or rumbling noise; to play discordantly or noisily on an instrument, to strum. Cf. JAMBLE, JANGLE. Obs.
1530. Palsgr., 595/2. I iumbyll, I make a noyse by removyng of heavy thynges. Ibid. They have iombled so ouer my heed to nyght, I could nat slepe. Ibid. To here him iombyll on a lute.
1566. Drant, Horace, Sat., III. B iij. A boysterous basse he bounsed out, and jumbled on his stringes.
1658. Willsford, Secrets Nat., 131. If their guts jumble … very much.
1741. W. Gostling, in Phil. Trans., XLI. 873. Like the Reports of Cannon (which the Jumbling of my Sashes prevented my distinguishing).
1805. A. Wilson, in Poems & Lit. Prose (1876), II. 141. Jumbling cowbells speak some cottage near.
† 6. a. intr. To have carnal intercourse. b. trans. To know carnally. Obs.
1582. Stanyhurst, Æneis, IV. (Arb.), 100. Dido and thee Troian captayne doo iumble in one den.
1611. Cotgr., Toquer,… to iumble a woman.
a. 1693. Urquhart, Rabelais, III. xxv. 202. The Lackeys … jumbled … his Wife.
