tumbrel

American  

[tuhm-bruhl] / ˈtʌm brəl /

Or tumbril

noun

1. one of the carts used during the French Revolution to convey victims to the guillotine.

2. a farmer's cart, especially one for hauling manure, that can be tilted to discharge its load.

3. Obsolete. a two-wheeled covered cart accompanying artillery for carrying tools, ammunition, etc.

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tumbrel British  

/ ˈtʌmbrəl /

noun

1. a farm cart for carrying dung, esp one that tilts backwards to deposit its load. A cart of this type was used to take condemned prisoners to the guillotine during the French Revolution

2. (formerly) a covered cart that accompanied artillery in order to carry ammunition, tools, etc

3. an obsolete word for a ducking stool

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Etymology

Origin of tumbrel

1275–1325; Middle English tumberell ducking stool < Medieval Latin tumberellus < Old French tumberel dump-cart, equivalent to tombe ( r ) to fall ( tumble ) + -rel -rel

Example Sentences

“Mr Thomas the careers man came and he thinks I should do economics,” my diary records in tumbrel dread.

From The Guardian • Apr. 27, 2019

Traditionally, of course, it's Marie Antoinette, who must have had souls rattling round in her like distressed aristocrats in a tumbrel.

From The Guardian • Sep. 3, 2010

In it, he brings off an excruciating knock-knock joke in French-en route to his conclusion about the uses of laughter in the gloomy present: "In this age penumbral,/Let the timbrel resound in the tumbrel."

From Time Magazine Archive

It may have seemed droll to cast Judy Holliday as a Peace Corps clown, a lady Jonah anxious to do good out where the East begins, but this musical is as funny as a tumbrel.

From Time Magazine Archive

I was the condemned young aristocrat holding my head high in the tumbrel.

From "The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate" by Jacqueline Kelly

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