▪ I. ˈbumble, n.1
Also 6 Sc. bombill, 8 Sc. bummil, bummle.
[f. bumble v.1]
1. ? A humming noise; bluster. Sc.
| 1597 Montgomerie Flyting 105 for all ȝour bombill. |
2. a. A bumble-bee. b. ‘A provincial name for the Common Bittern’ (Atkinson Prov. Names of Birds 1864).
| 1638 Whiting Albino & Bell. (N.) Yon tender webs..Through which with ease the lusty bumbles break. 1789 Davidson Seasons 63 (Jam.) Up the howes the bummles fly in troops. |
c. An angler's artificial fly.
| 1873 H. St. J. Dick Flies & Fly Fishing ix. 138 The Bumble. This is a Derbyshire grayling fly used in that part of the country nearly all the season. Ibid. 39 It is, I suppose, meant for some water insect, but the local fishermen have spring, summer, and autum bumbles, all dressed differently. 1889 F. M. Halford Dry-Fly Fishing vi. 123 An orange bumble, floated occasionally over the feeding fish, may be successful. |
▪ II. † ˈbumble, n.2 Obs. exc. dial.
[onomatopœic, cf. bungle, jumble, fumble.]
1. A confusion, jumble.
| 1648 W. Jenkyn Blind Guide i. 15 A bumble of musty reasons. 1660 S. Fisher Rusticks Alarm Wks. (1679) 427 With many more Bumbles of their Senses, Meanings, Opinions. 1690 B. E. Dict. Cant. Crew, Bumble, Cloaths setting in a heap, or ruck. 1847–78 Halliwell, Bumble, a confused heap. North. |
2. A bumbler or blunderer; an idler. (Cf. batie-bummil, batie-bum; also bumble n.1 2 a.)
| 1786 Burns Sc. Bard gone W. Ind. iv, Some drowsy bummle, Wha can do nought but fyke an' fumble. 1789 Davidson Seasons 181 (Jam.) The Muse..ca'd me bumble. |
3. [The name of the beadle in Dickens's Oliver Twist (see bumbledom)] A beadle; a member of a municipal corporation, parish council, or the like, to whom official pomposity and fussy stupidity are attributed; a consequential jack-in-office; sometimes used attrib.
| 1856 Sat. Rev. II. 416/2 It will..be useless to impress upon the great Bumble mind, etc. 1865 Hotten Slang Dict., Bumble, a beadle. a 1889 Punch (Barrère & Leland), The apish antics of a bumble crew. 1890 Farmer Slang s.v., Bumble-Crew, a collective name for corporations, vestries, and other official bodies. 1895 Morris in Mackail W.M. (1899) II. 308, I hope we shall beat our Bumbles. |
4. attrib. and comb., as bumble-bath, bumble-broth, ? a mess, ‘pickle, soapsuds’; also with sense of ‘clumsy, unwieldy’: bumble-foot, a club foot; (also) a disease of the feet of domestic fowls, etc.; bumble-footed, club-footed.
| 1661 K. W. Conf. Charac. (1860) 56 A hog in armour, just such another bumble-arst furfact piece of mortality. 1595 Marocous Ext. (1843) 17 Such carrion as lies there in their bumble baths. 1602 Dekker Satirom. Wks. 1873 I. 218 If I might ha my wil, thou shouldst not put thy spoone into that bumble-broth. 1630 J. Taylor (Water P.) Praise Clean Linn. Wks. ii. 169/1 Laundresses are testy..When they are lathering in their bumble broth. 1854 Poultry Chron. I. 105 Bumble-foot comes from the ball of the foot. 1861 H. Kingsley Ravenshoe xli. (D.) She died mostly along of Mr. Malone's bumble foot..he being drunk and bumble-footed too. 1886 J. W. Hill Dis. Poultry 87 Occasionally the sole of the foot becomes the seat of a thick corn-like growth, which ultimately festers and exposes a ragged ulcerated wound. Such a condition is commonly termed ‘Bumble-Foot’. |
▪ III. bumble, n.3 dial.
See quot.
| 1694 Westmacott Script. Herb. 32 Bull-Rushes..in some Countries..are called Bumbles. 1877 Peacock N.W. Lincoln. Gloss. (E.D.S.) Bumbles, such as are used for chair-bottoms. |
▪ IV. bumble, n.4 dial.
(ˈbʌmb(ə)l)
‘A small round stone. West.’ (Halliwell.)
| 1839 Murchison Silur. System i. xxxi. 413 Small concretions, which..alternate with beds of solid limestone. The former..are here known under the name of bumbles. |
▪ V. † ˈbumble, n.5 Obs. rare—1.
A bandage for blindfolding. ‘A kind of blinkers. North.’ (Halliw.)
| 1623 Lisle ælfric on O. & N.T. Pref. 14 Hood-winked with his implicite faith, as with a bumble on his head. 1863 Gloss. in Morton Cycl. Agric., Bumbles, covers for horses' eyes. |
▪ VI. bumble, v.1
Also 4–6 bomble.
[f. boom v.1, bum v.2 + frequentative suffix -le.]
1. a. intr. To boom, as a bittern; to buzz, as a fly. Also transf.
| c 1386 Chaucer Wife's T. 116 As a Bitore bombleth in the Myre [v.r. bumbith, bumliþ]. 1556–1693 [see bumbling vbl. n.]. 1868 Atkinson Cleveland Gloss. 78 Bumble, to hum or buzz. 1908 ‘Ian Hay’ Right Stuff ii. iii. 198 The bees were bumbling in the heather. 1925 C. Dodd Farthing Spinster 240 Grasshoppers sang, bees bumbled. 1941 Wyndham Lewis Let. 10 Aug. (1963) 296 How can people read books with war-planes incessantly bumbling away over their heads. |
b. To speak ramblingly, to drone on (in some examples influenced by bumble v.2).
| 1958 Listener 2 Jan. 36/1 To doze contentedly over my set, bumbling on about the good fortune of my colleague. 1958 Punch 29 Jan. 181/2 His style of oratory is peculiar, as he bumbles along like a metaphysical farmer. 1969 Sunday Times (Colour Suppl.) 9 Nov. 80/3 You can quite happily bumble on without too much trouble if that's what you want. |
† 2. trans. To grumble at, blame, take to task. Obs.
| 1675 T. Duffet Mock Temp. iii. i, Be bumbled, and jumbl'd, and grumbl'd at. 1781 Cowper Corr. (1824) I. 201, I shall not bumble Johnson for finding fault with Friendship. |
▪ VII. ˈbumble, v.2
Also 6 bomble, 8–9 Sc. bummil, -el.
[See bumble n.2]
a. intr. To blunder, flounder. See bumbling vbl. n. and cf. bumbling ppl. a. b. trans. To bungle over; to do in a bungling manner.
| 1532 More Confut. Tindale Wks. (1557) 693/1 The thinge wher about he hath bombled all thys while. Ibid. 734/2 Which argument Tindall hath all thys while bumbled aboute to soyle. 1719 Ramsay Epist. Hamilton ii, 'Tis ne'er be me Shall..say ye bummil Ye'r poetrie. 1807 Stagg Poems 145 As for a bang he bummel'd..An' down the warrior tumel'd. 1876 Coursing Cal. 212 Merry Girl beat Unknown in good style, the latter bumbling very much at his fences. 1926 Chambers's Jrnl. 87/1 Ploughmen of thirty learning to hold a pen and ‘bummel through the Single Carritch’. 1959 E. Pound Thrones xcvii. 32 The artigianato bumbles into technology. |