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Tumble vs Welter - What's the difference?

tumble | welter |

In intransitive terms the difference between tumble and welter

is that tumble is to fall end over end while welter is to roll; to wallow.

As an adjective welter is

of horsemen, heavyweight; as, a welter race.

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

    welter

    English

    Etymology 1

    From (etyl), from (etyl). Cognates include (etyl) (m) ((etyl) .

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • general confusion; disorderly mixture; aimless effort; as, a welter of papers and magazines

    • Verb

    (en verb)
  • to roll; to wallow
  • (intransitive, sometimes, figurative) to be soaked or steeped in.
  • * Latimer
    • When we welter in pleasures and idleness, then we eat and drink with drunkards.
  • * Spenser
    • These wizards welter in wealth's waves.
  • * Landor
    • the priests at the altar weltering in their blood
  • To rise and fall, as waves; to tumble over, as billows.
  • * Milton
    • the weltering waves
  • * Wordsworth
    • waves that, hardly weltering , die away
  • * Trench
    • through this blindly weltering sea
    Derived terms
    * (l)

    Etymology 2

    Adjective

  • Of horsemen, heavyweight; as, a welter race.
    • Derived terms
    * welter-weight

    Etymology 3

    Compare wilt (intransitive verb).

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To wither; to wilt.
  • * I. Taylor
    • Weltered hearts and blighted memories.
    English terms with multiple etymologies ----