The vbl. sb. and ppl. adj. in combinations and special collocations, as tumbling boy, girl, -ground, lass, -trick; also tumbling-barrel = tumbling-box; tumbling-bay, an outfall from a river, canal or reservoir; a weir; also, the pool into which the water falls from this; tumbling bob, a weighted lever or arm in machinery, which when moved to a certain point falls and produces some motion; tumbling-box, a rotating drum in which small articles (usually of metal) are cleaned and polished by attrition; also used in dissolving and mixing paints, varnishes, etc.; tumbling car, a tumbrel; † tumbling cast, a somersault; a fall, overthrow; tumbling crank: see quot.; tumbling gear, a gear with one or more idle wheels on a swinging frame for producing reverse motion; † tumbling glass, a tumbler; tumbling joint: see quot.; tumbling metre, cf. tumbling verse; tumbling-mill, a tumbling-box or set of these (Cent. Dict. Suppl., 1909); tumbling-room, space for tumbling; spec. a room in which a tumbling-box is set up; tumbling shaft, a revolving shaft carrying cams producing intermittent motion; tumbling-star, an iron ball with projecting spikes which is put into the tumbling-box to stir up the polishing or abrading medium (Cent. Dict. Suppl., 1909); tumbling stone, a loose stone embedded in clay; a boulder: = TUMBLER 8; tumbling tom, in Coal-mining: see quot. 1883; also Sc. (tumbling Tam), a thick heavy halfpenny of George III.’s reign; tumbling-trough, in sulphuric acid manufacture, a receptacle that pours nitric acid from each of its two balancing chambers in turn (Cent. Dict., 1891); tumbling verse, a kind of irregular anapæstic verse: see quot.; tumbling water-cracker, a kind of aquatic firework; tumbling weight = tumbling bob; tumbling-wheel, a revolving chamber in which small wooden objects are smoothed by attrition; cf. tumbling-box.
1724. Jrnl. Ho. Comm., XX. 382. The water is to be divided by an overfall or *tumbling bay.
1795. J. Phillips, Hist. Inland Navig., Add. 90. To preserve the water of the same river, a tumbling bay is to be erected.
1847. Addison, Law of Contracts, II. i. § 1 (1883), 244. The lessee of a water-mill … has no right to alter the height of the tumbling-bay.
1891. A. J. Foster, Ouse, 136. A fine large ‘tumbling bay,’ as the pools below the sluices are sometimes called.
1824. R. Stuart, Hist. Steam Engine, 73. A weight or *tumbling bob, or Y piece, to give the necessary momentum to the movement of the injection-cock lever.
1877. Knight, Dict. Mech., *Tumbling-box,… a cylindrical or barrel-shaped vessel … mounted on an axis so as to be revolved by a winch or pulley. Called also rumble, rolling barrel.
1840. Dickens, Old C. Shop, xi. He sent an express to the wharf for the *tumbling boy.
1881. Daily News, 2 June, 5. The little tumbling boy and his oppressors.
1811. in Chamb. Jrnl., 11 Jan. (1845), 31/2. The chief part … was brought from the sandbeds of Esk in *tumbling cars.
1530. Palsgr., 179. Sombresault, a *tumblyng caste.
1677. Needham, 2nd Pacquet Adv., 31. They are for a Tumbling-Cast to the present rulers of Church and State.
1886. J. Barrowman, Sc. Mining Terms, 69. *Tumbling-crank, a crank on the end of the pumping shaft for giving reciprocating motion.
1793. Trans. Soc. Arts (ed. 2), V. 202. The common *Tumbling Geer, as used in the Fire Engine.
1896. K. Leask, H. Miller, ii. 39. A *tumbling-girl who had been sold by her parents to a travelling mountebank.
1803. MS. Diary, in N. & Q., 8th Ser. (1893), III. 168/1. Had a few friends to dine, tried my new *tumbling-glasses; very successful, all got drunk early.
1861. Sat. Rev., 14 Dec., 604. A field is lent for a circus or a *tumbling-ground for an acrobat.
1844. Stephens, Bk. Farm, III. 981. The English hay-tedding machine … having a series of revolving rakes…. The rakes are attached to the wheels by a *tumbling-joint,… when any undue resistance is opposed to a rake … the rake falls back till the obstruction has been passed.
1687. Fountainhall, Decis. (1759), I. 439. Reid the Mountebank pursues Scot of Harden … for stealing away from him a little girl, called the *Tumbling-Lassie, that danced upon his stage.
1847. Proc. Philol. Soc., III. 103. When this licence is taken frequently the metre becomes of that species … called … *‘tumbling metres.’
1860. G. Meredith, Evan Harrington, viii. No *tumbling-room for the wine, eh?
1901. Trans. Amer. Inst. Electr. Engin., 562 (Cent. Supp.).
c. 1790. Imison, Sch. Art, I. 36. It [the universal joint] is of great use in cotton mills, where the *tumbling shafts are continued to a great distance from the moving power.
1857. J. Robertson, in Charteris, Life, xii. (1863), 338. There are many sloughs and *tumbling stones on the road.
1881. Borings & Sinkings, II. 2 (E.D.D.). Strong blue clay with large tumbling stones.
1826. Galt, Last of Lairds, iv. I gave hin a whole penny—twa new bawbees, gude weight, for it was then the days o’ the *tumbling Tams.
1883. Gresley, Coal Mining Gloss., Tumbling Toms, tippers that turn completely over.
1596. Shaks., Tam. Shr., Induct. ii. 140. Is it not a Comontie, a Christmas gambold, or a *tumbling tricke?
1673. Hickeringill, Greg. F. Greyb., 302. They coming not to church to see tumbling tricks and hocus juglings.
1585. Jas. I., Ess. Poesie (Arb.), 63. Thir hes twa short, and ane lang throuch all the lyne, quhen they keip ordour: albeit the maist pairt of thame be out of ordour, and keipis na kynde nor reule of Flowing, and for that cause are callit *Tumbling verse.
1799. G. Smith, Laboratory, I. 24. Charges for *Tumbling Water-crackers. Mealed powder…, nitre…, and charcoal. [Cf. 21 Water-crackers, which turn in the water.]
1903. Nature, 19 Nov., 68/1. Barney’s illustration of the Dudley Castle engine (erected in 1712) was made in 1719, and contains the plug-frame and *tumbling-weight device…. It is possible that the tumbling-weight had just been added for actuating the steam-valve.
