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Tumble vs Slide - What's the difference?

tumble | slide |

As nouns the difference between tumble and slide

is that tumble is a fall while slide is an item of play equipment that children can climb up and then slide down again.

As verbs the difference between tumble and slide

is that tumble is (lb) to fall end over end while slide is (ergative) to (cause to) move in continuous contact with a surface.

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

    slide

    English

    Verb

  • (ergative) To (cause to) move in continuous contact with a surface
  • He slid the boat across the grass.
    The safe slid slowly.
    Snow slides down the side of a mountain.
  • To move on a low-friction surface.
  • The car slid on the ice.
  • * (rfdate), Waller:
  • They bathe in summer, and in winter slide .
  • (baseball) To drop down and skid into a base.
  • Jones slid into second.
  • To lose one’s balance on a slippery surface.
  • He slid while going around the corner.
  • To pass or put imperceptibly; to slip.
  • to slide in a word to vary the sense of a question
  • (obsolete) To pass inadvertently.
  • * Bible, Eccles. xxviii. 26
  • Beware thou slide not by it.
  • To pass along smoothly or unobservedly; to move gently onward without friction or hindrance.
  • A ship or boat slides through the water.
  • * (rfdate), Dryden:
  • Ages shall slide away without perceiving.
  • * (rfdate), Alexander Pope:
  • Parts answering parts shall slide into a whole.
  • (music) To pass from one note to another with no perceptible cessation of sound.
  • To pass out of one's thought as not being of any consequence.
  • * (rfdate), Chaucer:
  • With good hope let he sorrow slide .
  • * (rfdate), Philip Sidney:
  • With a calm carelessness letting everything slide .

    Derived terms

    * let slide

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • An item of play equipment that children can climb up and then slide down again.
  • The long, red slide was great fun for the kids.
  • A surface of ice, snow, butter, etc. on which someone can slide for amusement or as a practical joke.
  • (Charles Dickens)
  • The falling of large amounts of rubble, earth and stones down the slope of a hill or mountain; avalanche.
  • The slide closed the highway.
  • An inclined plane on which heavy bodies slide by the force of gravity, especially one constructed on a mountainside for conveying logs by sliding them down.
  • A mechanism consisting of a part which slides on or against a guide.
  • The act of sliding; smooth, even passage or progress.
  • a slide on the ice
  • * Francis Bacon
  • A better slide into their business.
  • *
  • A lever that can be moved in two directions.
  • A valve that works by sliding, such as in a trombone.
  • A transparent plate bearing an image to be projected to a screen.
  • (baseball) The act of dropping down and skidding into a base
  • (sciences) A flat, rectangular piece of glass on which a prepared sample may be viewed through a microscope.
  • (music, guitar) A hand-held device made of smooth, hard material, used in the practice of slide guitar.
  • A lively dance from County Kerry, in 12/8 time.
  • (geology) A small dislocation in beds of rock along a line of fissure.
  • (Dana)
  • (music) A grace consisting of two or more small notes moving by conjoint degrees, and leading to a principal note either above or below.
  • (phonetics) A sound which, by a gradual change in the position of the vocal organs, passes imperceptibly into another sound.
  • A clasp or brooch for a belt, etc.
  • Synonyms

    * (item of play equipment) slippery dip * (inclined plane on which heavy bodies slide by the force of gravity) chute * (mechanism of a part which slides on or against a guide) runner

    Derived terms

    * landslide * mudslide * water slide * hairslide