Promptorium Parvulorum (Harl. 221) 436 Romelynge, or privy mysterynge, ruminacio, mussitacio.

c1450 (c1395) G. Chaucer Clerk's Tale (Texas) (1940) l. 997 Rumblyng [c1405 Hengwrt O, stormy peple..Ay vndiscreet and chaungynge as a vane Delitynge euere in rumbel þ^t is newe].

1471 in T. Wright Polit. Poems & Songs (1861) II. 276 (MED) There was rorynge and rumbelynge, pete to here..That day many a stowte man was ded there.

?1510 T. More tr. G. Pico della Mirandola in tr. G. F. Pico della Mirandola Lyfe I. Picus sig. d.iv I may..be tossed in the flode and rombeling of your worldly besynesse.

1587 A. Fleming et al. Holinshed's Chron. (new ed.) III. Contin. 1537/1 The time of queene Marie; in the beginning of whose reigne..there was some rumbling thereabout.

1688 in H. Paton Reg. Privy Council Scotl. (1932) 3rd Ser. XIII. 326 He hard ane great rumbling at his door, and immediatlie thereafter the door being broken to peices [etc.].

?1886 Great Industries of Great Brit. No. 21. 228/2 To remove this roughness and sand, the pieces are subjected to an operation called ‘rumbling’.

1911 Industr. Engin. June 482/2 These castings..cost 6 cents each for molding alone, to say nothing of the cost of the sand and the work of rumbling and cleaning.

1965 G. J. Williams Econ. Geol. N.Z. xiv. 217/1 The relatively unaltered phenocrysts were experimentally removed by screening, cleaned by washing and rumbling, and analysed.

2004 H. S. Bawa Manuf. Processes I. xxi. 264 Barrel tumbling is also known as rumbling. It is the process of cleaning small metallic parts with the help of an abrasive.

1894 Glagow Herald 26 Feb. 12/2 (advt.) 3 rumbling barrels.

1924 Jrnl. Inst. Metals 32 294 Small articles, such as may be treated in rumbling barrels.

1947 Manch. Guardian 30 Jan. 2/4 (advt.) Rumbling barrel and sand-blasting machine, motor driven.

c1598 King James VI & I Basilicon Doron (1944) I. 188 I debarre all rumling uiolent exercises as the fitball meitter for laming nor making able the useris thairof.

1815 Sporting Mag. 46 129 A sort of rumbling rally followed.

1823 J. Galt Entail I. ii. 14 Claud's a rumbling laddie, and needs mair than I hae to gi'e him.

1890 A. J. Armstrong Ingleside Musings & Tales 140 A rummlin' wee peelreestie, Where mischief is, he's to the fore.

1948 Huntly Express in Sc. National Dict. (1968) VII. 516/1 As regards his records of transactions, the average farmer is, to use his own expression, ‘a bitty rummelin' kin'’.

1756 H. Walpole Corr. Aug. (1973) XXXV. 266 The Great Road as far as Stamford is superb... It is continued much farther, but is more rumbling.

1775 Duchess of Northumberland Short Tour 6 I travelled the first post over a very rough rumbling causeway, but after that the road mended.

1783 W. Beckford Dreams vii. 40 The vicissitudes of good roads and rumbling pavements.

1859 P. F. Stout Nicaragua x. 102 We resumed our saddles, and over a rough, wild, hollow, rumbling road, reached a lovely and rolling country, a grateful relief to the eye and feelings.

1901 E. P. Tenney Dream of my Youth xx. 238 Of Peter's journey..dog-sledging a thousand miles toward the pole, delightful accounts came to me: his letters tinkling with dog bells on rumbling roads of ice.

2005 K. Temple Back to Earth xi. 132 Other than the rumbling road, there is no sign of man as far as I can see over the sweeping Dakota plains.

1778 A. Wight Present State Husbandry in Scotl. I. iii. 354 Drains were made in great abundance, such as are known by the name of rumbling sivers.

1799 J. Robertson Gen. View Agric. Perth 270 In the upland where round stones are at hand, rumbling drains are most in use.

1839 Farmer's Mag. New Ser. Jan. 59/1 Those who have been brought up in the old school..still believe that the old rumbling drain is the only method to be adopted.

1877 Aberdeen Weekly Jrnl. 22 Nov. 4/5 The expense..would be probably about £820, including..forming a rumbling drain along the front and ends of this wing.

1894 R. O. Heslop Northumberland Words Rummlin-cundy, a drain..filled up to the surface with loose stones.

1919 Building Age 41 26/1 Often a deep narrow trench is cut round the house and filled in at the bottom with field stones, smaller stones being filled nearer the top, until the last layer is the same as the surrounding soil. This is called a rumbling drain in Britain, and is a very effective, although rough, method of often clearing a basement of dampness.

2001 Post-Medieval Archaeol. 35 241 Subsequent activity included a stone-lined drain, perhaps of the 18th century; and a rumbling drain containing graded gravel and cobbles.

1826 A. Judson Dict. Burman Lang. 101 Noisily, rumblingly.

1834 L. Ritchie in Keepsake 239 A hollow sound, resembling a groan, broke upon her ear, and died rumblingly away in the distance.

1922 A. A. Milne Red House Myst. ii. 18 He laughed rumblingly.

2007 A. Theroux Laura Warholic xlv. 716 At Jeff's apartment..he was rumblingly asleep, fat, flatulent, and dribbling.