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Tumble vs Fell - What's the difference?

tumble | fell |

As nouns the difference between tumble and fell

is that tumble is a fall while fell is fur, pelt (hairy skin of an animal).

As a verb tumble

is (lb) to fall end over end.

tumble

English

Noun

(en noun)
  • A fall.
  • I took a tumble down the stairs and broke my tooth.
  • An act of sexual intercourse.
  • * John Betjeman, Group Life: Letchworth
  • Wouldn't it be jolly now, / To take our Aertex panters off / And have a jolly tumble in / The jolly, jolly sun?
  • * 1979 , Martine, Sexual Astrology (page 219)
  • When you've just had a tumble between the sheets and are feeling rumpled and lazy, she may want to get up so she can make the bed.

    Derived terms

    * rough and tumble * take a tumble * tumble dryer * tumbler * give a tumble

    Verb

    (tumbl)
  • (lb) To fall end over end.
  • *(Robert South) (1634–1716)
  • *:He who tumbles from a tower surely has a greater blow than he who slides from a molehill.
  • *
  • *:“Heavens!” exclaimed Nina, “the blue-stocking and the fogy!—and yours are'' pale blue, Eileen!—you’re about as self-conscious as Drina—slumping there with your hair tumbling ''à la Mérode! Oh, it's very picturesque, of course, but a straight spine and good grooming is better.”
  • To perform gymnastics such as somersaults, rolls, and handsprings.
  • :(Rowe)
  • To roll over and over.
  • *1908 , (Kenneth Grahame), (The Wind in the Willows)
  • *:The two animals tumbled over each other in their eagerness to get inside, and heard the door shut behind them with great joy and relief.
  • (lb) To have sexual intercourse.
  • (lb) To smooth and polish a rough surface on relatively small parts.
  • To muss, to make disorderly; to tousle or rumple.
  • :
  • Derived terms

    * tumble to

    fell

    English

    Etymology 1

    From (etyl) fellen, from (etyl) fellan, .

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To make something fall; especially to chop down a tree.
  • * Shakespeare
  • Stand, or I'll fell thee down.
  • * {{quote-news
  • , year=2011 , date=October 2 , author=Aled Williams , title=Swansea 2 - 0 Stoke , work=BBC Sport Wales citation , page= , passage=Sinclair opened Swansea's account from the spot on 8 minutes after a Ryan Shawcross tackle had felled Wayne Routledge.}}
  • To strike down, kill, destroy.
  • :* {{quote-book
  • , year=1922 , year_published=2010 , edition=HTML , editor= , author=Edgar Rice Burroughs , title=The Chessmen of Mars , chapter= citation , genre= , publisher=The Gutenberg Project , isbn= , page= , passage=Gahan, horrified, saw the latter's head topple from its body, saw the body stagger and fall to the ground. ... The creature that had felled' its companion was dashing madly in the direction of the hill upon which he was hidden, it dodged one of the workers that sought to seize it. … Then it was that Gahan's eyes chanced to return to the figure of the creature the fugitive had ' felled . }}
  • :* {{quote-web
  • , date=2010-09-27 , year= , first= , last= , author=Christina Passariello , authorlink= , title=Prodos Capital, Samsung Make Final Cut for Ferré , site=Wall Street Journal citation , archiveorg= , accessdate=2012-08-26 , passage=… could make Ferré the first major fashion label felled by the economic crisis to come out the other end of restructuring. }}

    Verb

    (head)
  • (fall)
  • Etymology 2

    (etyl) 'skin', Russian plená'' 'pelt', (etyl) plah 'to cover', Ancient Greek ''péllas 'skin').

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • That portion of a kilt, from the waist to the seat, where the pleats are stitched down.
  • An animal skin, hide.
  • * Shakespeare:
  • We are still handling our ewes, and their fells , you know, are greasy.
  • (textiles) The end of a web, formed by the last thread of the weft.
  • Verb

    (en verb)
  • (sewing) To stitch down a protruding flap of fabric, as a seam allowance, or pleat.
  • * 2006, Colette Wolff, The Art of Manipulating Fabric , page 296:
  • To fell seam allowances, catch the lining underneath before emerging 1/4" (6mm) ahead, and 1/8" (3mm) to 1/4" (6mm) into the seam allowance.
    (wikipedia fell)

    Etymology 3

    From (etyl) fell, . Compare (m).

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A rocky ridge or chain of mountains.
  • * 1937 J.R.R. Tolkien, The Hobbit
  • The dwarves of yore made mighty spells,
    While hammers fell like ringing bells,
    In places deep, where dark things sleep,
    In hollow halls beneath the fells.
  • * {{quote-book
  • , year=1886 , author=Amelia Edith Huddleston Barr , title=The Squire of Sandal-Side : A Pastoral Romance , work= citation , page= , passage=Every now and then the sea calls some farmer or shepherd, and the restless drop in his veins gives him no peace till he has found his way over the hills and fells to the port of Whitehaven, and gone back to the cradling bosom that rocked his ancestors.}}
  • * 1971 Catherine Cookson, The Dwelling Place
  • She didn't know at first why she stepped off the road and climbed the bank on to the fells; it wasn't until she found herself skirting a disused quarry that she realised where she was making for, and when she reached the place she stood and gazed at it. It was a hollow within an outcrop of rock, not large enough to call a cave but deep enough to shelter eight people from the rain, and with room to spare.
  • A wild field or upland moor.
  • Etymology 4

    From (etyl) fel, . See felon.

    Adjective

    (er)
  • Of a strong and cruel nature; eagre and unsparing; grim; fierce; ruthless; savage.
  • * (William Shakespeare) (1564-1616)
  • while we devise fell tortures for thy faults
  • * 1663 , (Hudibras) , by , part 1,
  • And many a serpent of fell kind, / With wings before, and stings behind
  • *{{quote-book, year=1892, author=(James Yoxall)
  • , chapter=5, title= The Lonely Pyramid , passage=The desert storm was riding in its strength; the travellers lay beneath the mastery of the fell simoom. Whirling wreaths and columns of burning wind, rushed around and over them.}}
  • *
  • Strong and fiery; biting; keen; sharp; pungent; clever.
  • (label) Eager; earnest; intent.
  • * (Samuel Pepys) (1633-1703)
  • I am so fell to my business.

    Adverb

    (en adverb)
  • Sharply; fiercely.
  • Derived terms
    * (l)

    Noun

    (-)
  • Gall; anger; melancholy.
  • * Spenser:
  • Untroubled of vile fear or bitter fell .
  • * XIX c. ,
  • I wake and feel the fell of dark, not day.

    Statistics

    *

    Etymology 5

    Noun

  • (mining) The finer portions of ore which go through the meshes when the ore is sorted by sifting.
  • English causative verbs English irregular simple past forms ----