▪ I. jumble, v.
(ˈdʒʌmb(ə)l)
Also 6 iomble, -byll, ioomble, iumbyll, (gomble), (Sc. 5–6 iummil, pa. tense iwmlit; 9 jummle, pa. tense jummilt).
[Known only from 16th c., and without cognate words. Prob. onomatopœic: cf. bumble, fumble, mumble, rumble, stumble, tumble.]
1. intr. To move about in mingled disorder; to flounder about in tumultuous confusion.
| a 1529 Skelton Sp. Parrot 419 To iumbyll, to stombyll, to tumbyll down like folys. 1532 More Confut. Tindale Wks. 604/2 If..Tindalles horse..falle downe in the myre..and his maister and he lye together and iumble..till some good felowe helpe them vp. 1598 Sylvester Du Bartas ii. i. iii. Furies 271 In that fearfull Cave They [Furies] jumble, tumble, rumble, rage and rave. 1628 Ford Lover's Mel. iii. iii, Now! my braines are a Iumbling. 1858 Carlyle Fredk. Gt. ii. xiv, His Germans..left Wenzel to jumble about in his native Bohemian element, as King there. |
† b. fig. To be or become mixed up or confounded; to come together as by shaking up. Obs.
| a 1550 Christis Kirke Gr. xvi, He wes nocht wyss With sic jangleurs to jummil. 1785 Cowper Lett. 15 Jan., But we shall jumble together again. |
2. trans. To mingle together or mix up in confusion or disorder; to muddle, confuse.
| 1542 Boorde Dyetary xii. (1870) 266 If they dyd knowe what they dyd gomble togyther without trewe compoundynge. a 1556 Cranmer Wks. (Parker Soc.) I. 19 You confound and jumble so together the natural members of Christ's body in the sacrament. 1600 Holland Livy xxxvii. xxiii. 957 Now the reereward had no roume left them toward the land: and thus..they hastily were jumbled together. 1665 Glanvill Def. Vain Dogm. 39 That the divided Letters of an Alphabet should be accidentally jumbled into an elegant and polite Discourse. 1779 Wesley Hymns Pref. 4 The hymns are not carelessly jumbled together. 1793 Burke Rem. Policy Allies Wks. 1842 I. 605 To jumble the innocent and guilty into one mass, by a general indemnity. 1855 Singleton Virgil I. Pref. 6 Jumbling up one with the other. 1868 Freeman Norm. Conq. II. App. 562 William so jumbles together the events of 1051 and of 1055. |
b. with compl. To put, bring, cast (in, out, down, etc.) in clumsy confusion or disorder. ? Obs.
| c 1555 Harpsfield Divorce Hen. VIII (Camden) 168 Therefore he jumbleth in a blind false reason. a 1652 J. Smith Sel. Disc. iv. 72 Having once jumbled and crouded in a new kind of being. 1670–98 R. Lassels Italy I. 47 Making a man go before each horse, lest they should jumble one-another down. 1743 H. Walpole Lett. H. Mann (1834) I. 235, I should not like having my things jumbled out of one ship into another. |
c. To make up in a confused or random manner.
| 1572 Buchanan Detect. Marie in Collect. Mary Q. Scots (1727) II. 84 Then that all Men micht understand quhat it was that thay socht..thay jumbil up mariages. 1673 Blount World Errors To Rdr., A Bookseller..employs some mercenary to jumble up another like book out of this. 1769 Burke Late St. Nation Wks. II. 14 Some strange disposition of the mind jumbled up of presumption and despair. 1812 H. & J. Smith Rej. Addr. xiv, Call'd by a Frenchified word..that's jumbled of antique and verd. |
3. To stir up (a liquid, etc.) so as to mix the ingredients, or render turbid; to agitate, shake up, give a shaking or jolting to; hence colloq. to take for a drive. ? Obs.
| 1616 Surfl. & Markh. Country Farme 63 The Horse..[would have] that which is puddly and troubled..if so be he iumble the water with his foote before he drinke. 1667 Pepys Diary 24 Oct., That I might go abroad with my wife, who was not well, only to jumble her. 1693 Sir T. P. Blount Nat. Hist. 82 They bruise and jumble it [Indigo] in the Water, till the Leaf..becomes like a Kind of thick Mud. 1743–4 Mrs. Delany Autobiog. & Corr. 6 Mar. (1861) II. 275 You should give the child meat now:—and make him to be jumbled about a good deal. 1799 M. Underwood Diseases Childr. (ed. 4) III. 160 As though infants must necessarily be jumbled in a cradle like travellers in a mail-coach. 1813 Shelley in Dowden Life (1887) I. 317 You will..be better able to see the country than when jumbled in a chaise. |
| absol. a 1568 Wyf of Auchtirmwchty 67 Than to the kyrn that he did stoure, And jwmlit at it quhill he swatt. |
b. intr. To travel with shaking or jolting.
| 1748 Lady Luxborough Lett. to Shenstone (1775) 36, I don't love to jumble in a post-chaise alone. 1824 Scott St. Ronan's v, Trotting Nelly..jumbled off with her cart. 1843 Lefevre Life Trav. Phys. I. i. x. 233 Little four-wheeled narrow carts in which they jumble to the fair. |
4. trans. To put into mental confusion; to confuse, bewilder, ‘muddle’.
| 1668 H. More Div. Dial. iii. xl. (1713) 288 My mind has been so jumbled betwixt Time and Eternity, that I think I can speak sense in neither. 1724 Ramsay Vision x, Oppression dois the judgment jumble. 1858–61 Ramsay Remin. vi. (1870) 233, I like thae sermons best that jumbles the joodgment and confoonds the sense. |
† 5. intr. To make a confused or rumbling noise; to play discordantly or noisily on an instrument, to strum. Cf. jamble, jangle. Obs.
| 1530 Palsgr. 595/2, I iumbyll, I make a noyse by removyng of heavy thynges. Ibid., They have iombled so ouer my heed to nyght, I could nat slepe. Ibid., To here him iombyll on a lute. 1566 Drant Horace, Sat. iii. B iij, A boysterous basse he bounsed out, and jumbled on his stringes. 1658 Willsford Secrets Nat. 131 If their guts jumble..very much. 1741 W. Gostling in Phil. Trans. XLI. 873 Like the Reports of Cannon (which the Jumbling of my Sashes prevented my distinguishing). 1805 A. Wilson in Poems & Lit. Prose (1876) II. 141 Jumbling cowbells speak some cottage near. |
† 6. a. intr. To have carnal intercourse. b. trans. To know carnally. Obs.
| 1582 Stanyhurst æneis iv. (Arb.) 100 Dido and thee Troian captayne doo iumble in one den. 1611 Cotgr., Toquer,..to iumble a woman. a 1693 Urquhart Rabelais iii. xxv. 202 The Lackeys..jumbled..his Wife. |
▪ II. jumble, n.1
(ˈdʒʌmb(ə)l)
[f. jumble v.]
1. a. A confused or disorderly mixture or assemblage, a medley; also, disorder, muddle.
| 1661 Glanvill Van. Dogm. xviii, Had the world been coagmented from that supposed fortuitous jumble. 1678 Cudworth Intell. Syst. i. iv. §36. 551 There is a confused Jumble of Created, and Vncreated Beings together. 1711 Lady M. W. Montagu Lett., to Mrs. Hewet (1887) I. 33, I have the oddest jumble of disagreeable things in my head that ever plagued poor mortals. 1751 Cambridge Scribleriad ii. 184 note, The Macaronian is..a jumble of words of different languages, with words of the vulgar tongue latinized, and latin words modernized. 1882 Floyer Baluchistan 60 The scenery..is..a reckless jumble of hills and rocks of every imaginable shape, size, and colour. |
b. collect. sing. Articles for a jumble-sale; also, a jumble-sale or sales. colloq.
| 1931 Times 16 Mar. 1/3 Maternity Hospital, holding annual Jumble Sale.—Please deluge us with jumble. 1932 Daily Tel. 17 Mar. 1/2 Do please help us with our Easter Jumble on March 18th by sending anything saleable, old or new. 1962 [see fête n. 1 b]. 1966 Listener 20 Oct. 570/1 This feat of administration, this orgy of jumble and whist. 1973 J. Burrows Like Evening Gone ii. 27 When did the scouts have their jumble? I'd have thought every gloryhole..was empty. |
2. A shock, shaking, or jolting; colloq., a ride in a carriage (with reference to the shaking experienced).
| 1674 N. Fairfax Bulk & Selv. 151 The Shows or Phænomena of the world..even the worst of its shocks and jumbles. 1800 E. Hervey Mourtray Fam. II. 139 Mamma has lent me her carriage to go a shopping, so I wish you would take a jumble with me. 1823 F. Burney Lett. 29 Feb., Going out..either in brisk walks..or in brisk jumbles in the carriage. 1851 J. Colquhoun Moor & Loch (1880) I. 262 The jumble of the sea made shooting uncertain. 1855 F. Chamier My Travels I. x. 56 The carriage ought to be strong to bear the jolts and jumbles to which it is subjected. |
3. Comb., as jumble-letters, letters of a word thrown into disorder in order to exercise ingenuity in their proper re-arrangement; jumble-sale, a sale of miscellaneous cheap or second-hand articles at a charitable bazaar or the like; jumble-shop, a shop where very miscellaneous goods are sold.
| 1893 Q. [Couch] Delect. Duchy 287 Trudgeon that used to keep the jumble-shop across the water. 1898 Westm. Gaz. 12 Nov. 2/3 Some cheap articles for a jumble sale. 1899 Daily News 19 July 7/5 Competitions for money prizes for properly placing jumble letters. |
▪ III. jumble
variant of jumbal.