tumble home

noun

1. Nautical.,  an inward and upward slope of the middle body of a vessel.

2. Also tumblehome a similar shape for the body of an automobile.

Word History and Origins

Origin of tumble home¹

First recorded in 1825–35

Example Sentences

About nine months into my year of fandom, I reread Amy Hempel’s 1997 novella Tumble Home, a series of letters written by the narrator to a male artist who she is emotionally and intellectually obsessed with.

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Outside in the street caterwauling drunks tumble home from the pub, consuming carry-outs as they go.

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The Dutch ships in one respect excelled all others, in that they were the first in which the absurd practice of an exaggerated "tumble home," or contraction of the upper deck, was abandoned.

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The Venetians were, however, afraid to make the transverse section wide throughout, lest the weight of the guns near the sides of the vessel should cause the connection of the sides with the beams to strain; hence they gave the sides considerable "tumble home," or fall inboard, as represented by Fig.

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Smith.—"Tumble home" indicates curving in toward the top; "tumbling in aft," curving under.

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