tumble
Preserved but no longer current.
To comprehend or understand. A coster was asked what he thought of Macbeth, and he replied, "The witches and the fighting was all very well, but the other moves I couldn’t TUMBLE to exactly; few on us can TUMBLE to the jaw-breakers; they licks us, they do."
Era: ca. 1874 (Victorian)
Sources & notes
Historical definition reproduced from Hotten’s The Slang Dictionary (1874, public domain; Project Gutenberg #42108, retrieved 2026-07-31). Reflects the attitudes of its era.
Common questions
What does “tumble” mean?
To comprehend or understand. A coster was asked what he thought of Macbeth, and he replied, "The witches and the fighting was all very well, but the other moves I couldn’t TUMBLE to exactly; few on us can TUMBLE to the jaw-breakers; they licks us, they do."
Is “tumble” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.