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🤸 To fall over 🤸 A fall or flip 📉 To collapse 🔀 To mix up 💡 To realize 🤸 To do flips 🧺 To dry clothes
to tumble

to tumble

1 3.9
To dry clothes by turning them in a dryer
  • verb
  • /ˈtʌmbl/
: secar en secadora
  • So I'm just going to move our laundry into the tumble dryer and turn that on.
  • tumble dry
  • tumble the clothes
  • tumble in the dryer

Don't spin, don't tumble dry, don't shake, just air dry laying flat.

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Examples

  • The part has been tumbled for about two hours.

  • If you want to polish them, then you can tumble them; it takes about a week and a half to three weeks.

    Blog text (14)

  • Give it a good tumble, OK?

  • You do know how to tumble a cloth, don't you, Bunny?

    An Awfully Big Adventure (1995)

  • Oh, dear, Bunny doesn't know how to tumble a cloth.

    An Awfully Big Adventure (1995)

  • Don't spin, don't tumble dry, don't shake, just air dry laying flat.

    Justine Leconte officiel

  • After washing, remember to tumble the clothes in the dryer to make them soft and dry.

  • It’s important to tumble dry your towels so they come out fluffy and warm.

  • Make sure to tumble your sportswear after washing to avoid any damp smell.

Synonyms

to tumble dry
vsto tumble
1 3.2

To use a machine that turns clothes with hot air to remove water

is the shorter single-word form used instead of the two-word phrase
to drip-dry
vsto tumble
1 3.5

To hang clothes up so they dry without using heat

uses hot rotating air inside a machine rather than hanging to dry
to spin-dry
vsto tumble
1 3.1

Remove water from clothes by spinning them fast in a machine

is done with rotating heated air rather than only centrifugal spinning
to rough-dry
vsto tumble
1 7.7

Hang wet clothes without smoothing or ironing, leaving them a little wrinkled

is about heated rotating drying rather than leaving fabric unsmoothed

Idioms

to take a tumble
9 5.4

To fall suddenly, for example by tripping or by losing value

Phrasal Verbs

to tumble dry
1 3.2

To use a machine that turns clothes with hot air to remove water

to tumble on
  • UK
1 7.4

Keep going despite problems and confusion

Compounds

rough-and-tumble
  • Informal
13 7.3

Energetic and rough, not following usual rules

rough-and-tumble
4 7.8

A noisy, rough fight with little care for rules

tumble drier
  • UK
1 2.6

A machine that dries wet clothes by spinning them in warm air

tumble-dryer
  • UK
1 2.6

A machine that spins wet clothes with hot air to remove water

tumble grass
  • US
9.4

A wild grass with thin brush-like seed heads that grows in fields

How Mechanical

to tumble
1 3.9
to drip-dry
1 3.5
air-dry
  • Specialized
1 4.1

Surface Forms

tumble infinitive
tumbled past
tumbled past participle
tumbling present participle
tumbles third person singular

Etymology

Tumble comes from an old French word tomber meaning 'to fall' or 'turn over', and a dryer turns clothes over and over like small falls. So to tumble clothes is to rotate them in a drum until they dry.