tumbrel

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“
It was on the Place de la Nation, on a tumbrel -- going to the guillotine.

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Definitions (7)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (2)

  1. noun A two-wheeled cart, especially a farmer's cart that can be tilted to dump a load.
  2. noun A crude cart used to carry condemned prisoners to their place of execution, as during the French Revolution.

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Examples (50)

  • If in those early days he had been caught and carried in the death-tumbrel to the Place of the Skull, he would have remarked with Mercutio, "This is a grave subject." —  The Project Gutenberg eBook of Little Journeys to the Homes of the Great: Great Musicians, by Elbert Hubbard
  • Did his vaguely "woolly" thesis about "morphogenetic fields" deserve at least a ride in a tumbrel? —  homunculus
  • I count myself as something of an expert on what writer Joyce Cary once called "tumbrel remarks." —  The Poor Man Institute
  • A tumbrel remark is an unguarded comment by an uncontrollably rich person, of such crass insensitivity that it makes the workers and peasants think of lampposts and guillotines. —  The Poor Man Institute
  • I think I can tell the difference between a true tumbrel remark and a false one, and I hope the examples I have provided will help you all to do so, as well. —  Hitchens Watch
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This word has been looked up 94 times.

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Etymologies (2)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Middle English tumberell, from Old French tomberel, from tomber, to let fall, perhaps of Germanic origin.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (1)

  1. Also tumbril, and formerly tumbrell, iumrell; from Middle English tomberel, tomerel, tumrel, from Old French tumbrell, tumberel, tomberel, tumbreau, tumbereau, tombereau, French tombereau, a dump-cart, from tomber, fall, tumble: see tumb, tumble.
 

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/ˈtəmbrɛl/
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