Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. sexual intercourse.

1966		(con. 1948–52) L. Thomas Virgin Soldiers 39: If you fancy it you get ’er to take you ’ome and give you a rumble.
1991		(con. 1920s) O.D. Brooks Legs 65: I’d turn down a rumble with a luscious broad to go to the track or a poker game.

2. (US) a street gang fight.

1946		Amer. Mercury Apr. 480: We’re going to have a rumble with the Happy Gents tonight. Gang kids call these fights rumbles .
1950		Time 4 Dec. 40/3: Each gang had a [...] war counselor who arranged the time and place for gang ‘rumbles’ (wars).
1957		Laurents & Sondheim West Side Story I i: A rumble!
1962		(con. 1953–7) L. Yablonsky Violent Gang (1967) 28: Some boys used racial or ethnic discrimination as a reason for ‘calling on the rumble’ with the Jesters.
1972		(con. 1960s) R. Price ‘Big Playground’ in Antaeus Aut. 36: The other guys had a few rumbles, every once in a while some guy would have his jaw busted.
1974		(con. 1960s) R. Price Wanderers 3: The other gangs had a few rumbles, every once in a while some guy would have his jaw busted.
1987		D. Hebdige Cut ’n’ Mix 139: In the Zulu Nation he set out to replace ‘rumbles’ (fights) and drugs with rap, dance and hip hop style.
1998		K. Sampson Awaydays 33: He lives for rumours about supposed rumbles.
2001		OnLine Dict. of Playground Sl. 🌐 rumble n. fight. Often involving more than two people. Sometimes for fun, often more serious.
2014		E. McNamara ‘Redline’ in ThugLit Jan. [ebook] [W]aiting for their backup to arrive, so they could kick off part two of the rumble in the park.

3. a fight; an argument.

1949		N. Algren Man with the Golden Arm 313: They had let the 26-girls cheat them without a rumble.
1957		C. Himes Imabelle 88: I wasn’t back there when the rumble happened.
1965		C. Himes Rage in Harlem (1969) 87: [as 1957].
1967		P. Thomas Down These Mean Streets (1970) 13: It means a rumble is on, and a big one, too.
1976		Edwardsville Intelligencer (IL) 30 Mar. 2/3: Informers are [...] ‘done in’ sometimes during a ‘rumble’ or fight.
1981		A. Payne ‘You Need Hands’ in Minder [TV script] 47: I’ve run into those two young chancers I had a rumble with.
1997		‘Q’ Deadmeat 31: He’d got into a rumble with some Eyetalian nightclub owners.
2012		G. Pelecanos (con. 1972) What It Was 34: Race rumbles had gone the way of drop-down Chevys.
2023		Rayman & Blau Riker’s 82: [W]e started arguing and we almost got into a rumble right there.

4. attrib. use of sense 3 .

1988

D. Woodrell Muscle for the Wing 145: You had your rumble hat on and don’t bother telling me I’m wrong.

5. (US drugs) a police raid.

1953		‘William Lee’ Junkie (1966) 159: Shake, Rumble . . . Search by the law.
1957		C. Himes Imabelle 140: ‘I pay like hell. And the Captain promised me there wouldn't be any rumbles in here’ [i.e. a broothel].
1989		J. Morton Lowspeak.

6. (US campus) a wild party.

1967–8

Baker et al. CUSS.