Word.ws English Dictionary

take a tumble

take a tumble verb: to fall off something, or down something.

Verb

take a tumble (third-person singular simple present takes a tumble, present participle taking a tumble, simple past took a tumble, past participle taken a tumble)

  1. To fall off something, or down something.
    • Prince Charles spent the night in the hospital after he took a tumble off his horse yesterday while playing polo and briefly lost consciousness.
  2. (idiomatic) To fall in price or value.
    • Acme Industries shares took a tumble yesterday to the lowest value since 2001.

Forms of take a tumble

third-person singular presenttakes a tumble
present participletaking a tumble
pasttook a tumble
past participletaken a tumble

Questions about take a tumble

What does take a tumble mean?
Take a tumble means to fall off something, or down something.
What part of speech is take a tumble?
Take a tumble is a verb.
What is the past tense of take a tumble?
The past tense of take a tumble is took a tumble.

Words near take a tumble in the dictionary

  1. take a stab at
  2. take a stand
  3. take a step back
  4. take a tinkle
  5. take a toll
  6. take a tumble
  7. take a turn
  8. take a turn for the better
  9. take a turn for the worse
  10. take a view
  11. take a walk

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: take a tumble (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-take a tumble.ogg.

Cite this entry: “take a tumble.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/take_a_tumble. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.