▪ I. † drumble, n.1 Obs. exc. dial.
[Variant of dumble, dummel, perh. influenced by drone, or dromedary.]
An inert or sluggish person; a ‘drone’.
| 1575 Appius & Virg. in Hazl. Dodsley IV. 118 Yea, but what am I? A dreamer, a drumble, a fire or a spark? 1879 Shropsh. Word-bk., Drumble, obsols., a dull, inactive person. ‘The poor owd mon..wuz al'ays a poor drumble.’ |
▪ II. drumble, n.2
a dial. var. of dumble: cf. dimble.
▪ III. drumble, v.1 Now dial.
[f. drumble n.1]
1. intr. To be sluggish; to move sluggishly.
| 1598 Shakes. Merry W. iii. iii. 156 Go, take vp these cloathes heere, quickly..Look, how you drumble! 1822 Scott Nigel xxiii, Why, how she drumbles—I warrant she stops to take a sip on the road. 1826 ― Woodst. xviii, Why do you hesitate and drumble in that manner? 1875 H. Kingsley No. Seventeen xxvi, They, to use a Devonshire expression, drumbled on to Falmouth. |
† 2. intr. To drone, to mumble. Obs.
| 1579 Fulke Heskins' Parl. 288 How so euer M. Heskins drumbleth and dreameth of this matter, Cranmer saith truely. 1596 Nashe Saffron Walden 34 Graybeard drumbbling over a discourse. |
▪ IV. † drumble, v.2 Obs.
[app. freq. and dim. of drum v.: cf. Du. and Ger. trommeln, Da. tromle, Sw. trumla to drum.]
intr. To sound like a drum.
| 1630 Drayton Muses' Elysium viii. (R.), Let the nimble hand belabour The whistling pipe, and drumbling tabor. |
▪ V. drumble, v.3 Sc.
Also 9 drummle.
[app. a nasalized form of drubble v., parallel to drumbly, drumly a. from drubly; but possibly a back-formation from the adj., which occurs earlier.]
† 1. trans. To trouble, disturb. Obs.
| 1637 Rutherford Lett. (1862) I. 355 My drumbled and troubled well began to clear. 1724 Ramsay Dk. of Hamilton's Shooting in Poems on R.C. of Archers (1726) 46 Rogues that drumble [ed. 1800, at] the Common Weal. |
2. To make drumly or turbid.
| 1825 in Jamieson. Mod. Sc. The flood had drummled the water. |