tumbler
/ˈtʌmblə
/noun
1A drinking glass with straight sides and no handle or stem.Wine was sometimes drunk from glass tumblers....
- Don't burn your fingers on a tumbler.
- He pauses to pour ice water into a clear glass tumbler, and drinks from it heartily.
Synonyms
glass, drinking glass, beaker;
goblet, wine glass;
North American highball glass
archaic stoup
rare rummer
Formerly having a rounded bottom so as not to stand upright
2An acrobat, especially one who performs somersaults.Clearly, we all have something to learn from these clowns and tumblers....
- Moving slickly between tumblers and acrobats, the action takes in an absurdly daring high-wire act.
- It must have been the end of the school day for them as a flurry of wannabe clowns, tumblers and tightrope walkers came out of the bar as I was passing by.
2.1A pigeon of a breed that repeatedly turns over backwards in flight.
3 (also tumbler dryer) A tumble dryer.
4A pivoted piece in a lock that holds the bolt until lifted by a key.Pieces fall comfortingly into place like tumblers in a well-oiled lock....
- The girls had never known lock picking to be such a dangerously loud task before, as Loki's attempts rattled the tumblers of the lock so much, someone in a surrounding house could hear it from an open door or window.
- Finally, the tumblers of the resistant lock had come round in the magical right combination.
4.1A notched pivoted plate in a gunlock.
5An electrical switch worked by pushing a small sprung lever.
6 another term for tumbling barrel.
Derivatives
tumblerful
/ noun (plural tumblerfuls) ...- She slid into paroxysms of laughter that she tried quelling with a tumblerful of Southern Comfort.
- I took two tumblerfuls of cold water.
- Stir one tumblerful of good brandy and a wineglassful of Sherry wine.