Word.ws English Dictionary

tumbrils

tumbrils is the plural of tumbril.

Meaning of tumbril

Noun

tumbril (plural tumbrils)

  1. (historical) A kind of medieval torture device, later associated with a ducking stool.
  2. A cart well suited to dumping its load easily, being single-axled and also often having a hinged tailboard.
    • They then confined the Dean, while they rifled the house of every valuable article, as well as plate and money; all that was portable they loaded on Mr. Carleton’s own tumbril, to which they harnessed his horse […]1800, The Times, 17 Mar 1800, p.3 col. B
    Synonyms:
    dumpcart
  3. (historical) A cart used to carry condemned prisoners to their death, especially to the guillotine during the French Revolution.
    • It is now ascertained that the tumbrel and the torches which figured in the massacre-scene of the 23d of February were prepared beforehand […]1848, The Times, 26 Jun 1848, p.4 col. B
  4. (UK, obsolete) A basket or cage of osiers, willows, or the like, to hold hay and other food for sheep.

Questions about tumbrils

What is tumbrils the plural of?
Tumbrils is the plural of tumbril.

Words near tumbrils in the dictionary

  1. tumbrel
  2. tumbrels
  3. tumbril
  4. tumbrill
  5. tumbrills
  6. tumbrils
  7. tumbs
  8. tumbu flies
  9. tumbu fly
  10. Tumbuka
  11. Tumbukas

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: tumbrils (page history and authors); tumbril (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.

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