Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- v. To make a deep, long, rolling sound.
- v. To move or proceed with a deep, long, rolling sound.
- v. Slang To engage in a gang fight.
- v. To utter with a deep, long, rolling sound.
- v. To polish or mix (metal parts) in a tumbling box.
- n. A deep, long, rolling sound.
- n. A tumbling box.
- n. A luggage compartment or servant's seat in the rear of a carriage.
- n. Slang Pervasive, widespread expression of unrest or dissatisfaction.
- n. Slang A gang fight.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- To make a deep, heavy, continued and more or less jarring sound: as, the thunder rumbles.
- To murmur.
- To move with a deep, hoarse, thundering or jarring sound; roll heavily and noisily.
- To roll about; hence, to create disorder or confusion.
- To cause to make a deep, rattling or jarring sound; rattle.
- n. A deep, heavy, continuous, and more or less rattling or jarring sound, as of thunder; a low, jarring roar.
- n. Confused reports; rumor.
- n. Confusion; disorder; tumult.
- n. A revolving cylinder or box in which articles are placed to be ground, cleaned, or polished by mutual attrition. Grinding- or polishing-material is added according to the need of the case.
- n. A seat for servants in the rear of a carriage. Also rumble-tumble.
Wiktionary
- interj. An onomatopoeia describing a rumbling noise
- n. A low pitched irregular noise, such as that of thunder or a hungry stomach.
- n. slang A street fight or brawl.
- n. A rotating cask or box in which small articles are smoothed or polished by friction against each other.
- v. To make a low-pitched noise.
- v. To discover deceitful or underhanded behaviour.
- v. To move while making a rumbling noise.
- v. slang fight, brawl.
- v. transitive To cause to pass through a rumble, or polishing machine.
GNU Webster's 1913
- v. To make a low, heavy, continued sound.
- v. To murmur; to ripple.
- n. obsolete A noisy report; rumor.
- n. A low, heavy, continuous sound like that made by heavy wagons or the reverberation of thunder; a confused noise.
- n. A seat for servants, behind the body of a carriage.
- n. A rotating cask or box in which small articles are smoothed or polished by friction against each other.
- v. To cause to pass through a rumble, or shaking machine. See rumble, n., 4.
WordNet 3.0
- n. a loud low dull continuous noise
- n. a fight between rival gangs of adolescents
- v. to utter or emit low dull rumbling sounds
- v. make a low noise
- n. a servant's seat (or luggage compartment) in the rear of a carriage
Etymologies
- Middle English romblen, perhaps from Middle Dutch rommelen or from Middle Low German rummeln. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“I love how sony made us buy the regular controllers and now that the rumble is available we all have to re-buy controllers. .kind of a profit making coincidence for sony don't you think?”
“CHARLOTTE, N.C. The rumble from a pair of motors interrupted the opening ceremony at the NASCAR Hall of Fame.”
“* A low rumble is heard in the distance, suddenly Chodin comes over the horizon riding on a giant ant.”
“The reason sony isnt using rumble is because of a big court case they got in with a 3rd party company who put rumble into there controller. they also took microsoft to court but te payed off the 3rd party company.”
EXTRALIFE – By Scott Johnson - Sony controller revolutionary?
“If you've ever stood on Park Avenue, Manhattan, and felt a subway train rumble by underfoot, you know what a typical quake feels like.”
“Sony's official PlayStation blog has confirmed (link via Kotaku) that new PlayStation 3 controllers with DUALSHOCK technology -- also known as 'rumble' -- will rattle onto store shelves next week.”
“Police said that shortly after 3 a.m. officers heard commotion - a metal "rumble" - coming from the roof of the Quick and Easy Food Store at 580 Bellevue Ave. and checked out the building.”
“A 2004 report from IIHS shows that textured pavement, known as rumble strips, have reduced head-on crashes and side swipes by 25 to 30 percent.”
Consumer Reports: Crash avoidance technologies: Benefit or distraction?
“Instead, the rumble was the voice of a friend, telling him that the deluge was at hand to wash away all traces of their flight and to force their enemies into shelter, while his fever burned itself out.”
“Across the silent waste an engine bell jangles; the puff of steam ceases; the one plashing paddle-wheel at the stern is still; the lights glide more and more slowly; with a great crash and rumble, that is answered by the echoing woods, the anchor-chain runs out its short measure, and the steamer stops.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘rumble’.
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GRE Barrons Wordlist
A complete Barron's Wordlist for GRE preparation. Your online flashcard replacement.
abase, abash, abate, abbreviate, abdicate, aberrant, aberration, abet, abeyance, abhor, abject, abjure and 4087 more...
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Talk Talk
Words for Talking
( open list, randomness )squawk, gab, chatter, chitchat, blab, prattle, blather, discuss, hector, plead, cajole, harangue and 200 more...
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fight
words for fighting
( open list, randomness )bout, fight, match, smackdown, blue, stoush, battle, clash, fuss, fray, ruckus, tussle and 115 more...
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Onomatopoetic
words (seemingly) formed in imitation of a natural sound
plash, guff, woof, splash, crash, pow, crack, bang, whoosh, whizz, whallop, fizz and 116 more...
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Interesting words
A list of words that are odd or words that I have looked up.
concupiscence, brize, scree, scoria, forestaff, spanaemia, valetudinarianism, distasture, pyrethrum, laudanum, gentian, bicameral and 11184 more...
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Sounds
words that describe sound
atchoo, atishoo, babble, bam, bay, beep, blast, blather, bleat, bleep, blip, bong and 242 more...
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EN-HU - important words for a HU inte...
Words only (I left out the expressions) from Geza Kerenyi's EN-HU interpreters' dictionary. Most of them pose some difficulty when interpreted between HU and EN in either or both directions.
abalone, abrasive, abstractionist, abstruse, abysmal, academia, accessibility, accessible, acclimate, accolade, accompanist, achiever and 1469 more...
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sound (loud)
words for loud sounds
( open list, descriptive, randomness )
also see:
http://www.wordnik.com/lists/onomatopo...crash, thud, bump, thump, boom, smash, explode, roar, scream, screech, short, yell and 168 more...
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On with their heads!
Words that make other words with the addition of one letter at the beginning. The resulting words are tagged "behead".
men, his, yes, any, iota, limb, aged, laid, land, lead, read, word and 327 more...
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Them's fightin' words
brannigan, fisticuffs, donnybrook, lambaste, fracas, fray, imbroglio, melee, squabble, quarrel, skirmish, stramash and 28 more...
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onomatopoeias (2 syllable)
2 syllable words that mean what they sound like. (dictionaried or un-dictionaried | onomatopoeic in nature)
onomatopoeias (1 syllable) | onomatopoeias (3+ syllables)
( op...wobble, sputter, spatter, flutter, giggle, hiccup, mumble, murmur, jangle, rattle, sizzle, rustle and 21 more...
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Sounds
Shhh! Listen! Did you hear that?
tintinnabulous, susurration, ululation, pandemonium, keening, tinkle, clang, caterwaul, twangle, twank, din, rumble and 34 more...
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VNCle
N stands for 'nasal', not 'n'
pimple, bungle, spindle, handle, amble, humble, simple, dimple, winkle, tinkle, single, dingle and 53 more...
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Words from books I've read
These are some words I didn't know when I read and now I want to know!
mortgage, fiddling, rage, kick, stroke, dodge, hunch, scratch, covetous, rank, trickle, budget and 179 more...
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eggplantia5's Words
scintillate, marvel, cranberry, oscillate, triumph, bamboozle, grimace, magical, book, hexagon, cipher, compendium and 2727 more...
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Words I like
This is a list of my favourite words (phrases) in english, as a second language. I love them mostly because of how they sound and their meaning.
ninja, cookie, skill, zip, plentiful, digg, debris, pancake, cucumber, fetch, pot, backpack and 461 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for rumble.

dailyword This word was used in "The Outsiders." Jul 7, 2012