Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. to realize, to notice, to recognize; thus tumble to

1846		implied in tumble to
1859		Hotten Dict. of Modern Sl. etc. 112: tumble to comprehend or understand.
1865		Sporting Gaz. (London) 8 Apr. 4/3: To tumble to — To form a correct appreciation of any movement in the market connected with a race horse.
1867		Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 14 Sept. n.p.: On being ‘tumbled’ a rough [...] called out, ‘Come on, boys, let’s fight them’.
1874		J. Greenwood Wilds of London (1881) 161: Bristles placed his hand beneath his belt, and heaved a deep sigh. ‘Don’t you tumble?’ he asked.
1884		Ally Sloper’s Half Holiday 31 May 32: [caption] He goes down. D’ye tumble.
1885		Bulletin (Sydney) 14 Feb. 20/1: ‘Baggage be slammed,’ roared the other; ‘no. The place to have a bath – to wash in.’ ‘Oh, now I tumbles,’ replied the host; ‘yer wants a sloosh, I see.’.
1894		Truth (Sydney) 13 May. 1/5: Why the missus don’t tumble [...] is wat hi can’t make hout.
1895		E. Townsend Chimmie Fadden Explains 65: I didn’t tumble dat de Duchess was up t’ no game.
1899		C. Rook Hooligan Nights 9: I tumbled [he] was a stranger soon as I ketch sight of ’is dial.
1906		Sun. Times (Perth) 21 Oct. 4/7: I tumbled in arf of a jiffy.
1906		S. Ford Shorty McCabe 133: He didn’t have any time to put me next and I never tumbled until he’d sprung the trick.
1910		Truth (Perth) 1 Oct. 4/7: When they talk about ‘the old / Pot-an’-pan,’ / You will tumble that they mean / The ‘old man’ .
1917		Boy’s Own Paper XL:2 79: ‘You jolly soon tumbled when the water came on the scene,’ I chuckled.
1922		Joyce Ulysses 482: All possess bachelor’s button discovered by Rualdus Columbus. Tumble her.
1925		Eve. Teleg. (Dundee) 5 Feb, 8/2: I barged into Jimmy London, looking dashed queer and white about the gills [...] He had tumbled to the game that Ralston [...] had been planning.
1928		M.C. Sharpe Chicago May (1929) 64: I tumbled right away, but did not let on.
1937		(con. 1905–25) E.H. Sutherland Professional Thief (1956) 46: Whenever a hook is tumbled (suspected), he makes every effort to get rid of the pocketbook.
1940		D. Maurer Big Con 109: He suddenly tumbled that he had been played for the pay-off.
1947		(con. 1870s) F. Weitenkampf Manhattan Kaleidoscope 84: ‘He wouldn’t tumble if a house fell down’ was applied to unobservant people.
1958		(con. 1940s) B. Behan Borstal Boy 19: That old bastard of a grass-’opper won’t tumble it.
1963		M. Braly Shake Him Till He Rattles (1964) 125: I tumbled the other night when some lame hit on me to go in back.
1975		J. Wambaugh Choirboys (1976) 95: Then how’d you tumble? [...] It was my orange hat, wasn’t it?
1989		(con. 1950s–60s) in G. Tremlett Little Legs 51: We tumbled that there was a way of getting round this.
1999		Guardian Guide 6–12 Nov. 6: Before too long he tumbles that the department is not strictly legit.
2001		‘Randy Everhard’ Tattoo of a Naked Lady 20: The mooch tumbled his hot date [...] was a rip-off.

2. to agree (to), to take a liking (to).

1861		(con. 1840s–50s) H. Mayhew London Labour and London Poor I 129/1: I sell a hare or two, and, if rabbits is too dear, I tumble on to fish.
1877		Five Years’ Penal Servitude 125: The warder, nothing loth to make money, ‘tumbled,’ i.e., entered into an arrangement with him to write to certain friends of the prisoner’s.
1891		‘’Arry on Wheels’ in Punch 7 May 217/2: Ah! and some on ’em tumble, I tell yer, although they may look a mite shy.
1900		Bulletin (Sydney) 26 May 8/3: But I do [forget him] now that I have heard James Bain’s parody on the ditty and seen his Hop-like caricature of the singer. How the house ‘tumbles to it’ when Bain takes a fall out of ‘Pie, pie, pie!’.
1915		‘Doss Chiderdoss’ ‘A Ditty of Dislike’ Sporting Times 24 Apr. 1/2: To love one’s enemies as much as some have urged of late / Was a creed to which she didn’t tumble quite.
1956		‘Ed Lacy’ Men from the Boys (1967) 70: It was a clumsy lie and he didn’t tumble.
1967		(con. 1920s) J. Thompson South of Heaven (1994) 174: Didn’t think they’d tumble f’r each other.
1987		G.W. Clemente Cops are Robbers 171: [H]e started seeing a woman named Debbie O’Malley [...] Joe tumbled for her in a big way.

3. (UK Und.) to understand.

1859, 1860		Hotten Dict. of Modern Sl. etc.
1865		Leaves from Diary of Celebrated Burglar 46/1: If he or she – or whatever else it may be don’t come away from the door with ‘kidding,’ then haul the rascal away by force so as to allow me to get out and away. Do you ‘tumble,’ eh?
1870		Hotten Sl. Dict.
1885		‘’Arry [...] at the Grosvenor Gallery’ in Punch 10 Jan. 24/1: ‘Lady Dudley, born White’ I don’t tumble to — error somewhere I think.
1890		‘Doss Chiderdoss’ ‘Licensed by the L.C.C.’ Sporting Times 1 Mar. 1/2: He could tumble by her hymn-book that the lady had the bliss / To be licensed by the County Council.
1895		Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. 89: Tumble, to understand.
1902		Bulletin (Sydney) 13 Dec. 37/1: ‘Martin’s goin’ ter carry a squirt, but he’s dead fur us. Tumble?’ / Dan Hurden nodded.
1908		Sporting Times 27 June 1/4: Whether the noble lady dropped the subject because she didn’t tumble what a standpipe was, or whether she refrained from asking because she considered she had been ‘had’ already — alas, the world will never, never know.
1924		E.G. Murphy ‘Dossin’ Outer Doors’ Dryblower’s Verses 5: I ain’t a scientific bloke, but spare me dinkum days, / If I tumble to this josser and his noo fandangled ways.
1949		Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn).
1951		C. Stoker Thicker ’n Thieves 111: ‘You should have learned your lesson a long time ago. Sometimes a copper has to almost have his brains beaten in before he tumbles things up’.
2005		E. Weiner Big Boat to Bye-Bye 174: ‘I have no idea what you just said, friend.’ ‘Think hard; you’ll tumble’.

4. (UK Und.) to alert, to make someone suspicious.

1857		‘Ducange Anglicus’ Vulgar Tongue.
1865		Leaves from Diary of Celebrated Burglar 68/1: We had nothing to dread, even should we ‘tumble a moll’ and she ‘nose’ to the people or to attendants of the institution.
1935		A.J. Pollock Und. Speaks n.p.: Tumble, to attract attention.
1943		J. Phelan Letters from the Big House 117: If only they got it fused without being ‘tumbled.’.
1950		Goldin et al. DAUL 228/1: Tumble, v. To give or take a tumble.
1975		Bulletin (Sydney) 26 Apr. 45: Would you believe, as soon as the Limp lobs he’s tumbled the goose and we blew the whole bit.

5. (US Und.) to be arrested.

1908		Bulletin (Sydney) 20 Aug. x./1: To have recorded against you a single ‘sixer’ after preying on society almost continuously for at least six years is unusual, and a source of forgivable pride. / ‘Those who tumble in,’ remarked Spike, ‘call that sort of thing luck. I call it good management.’.
1929		A.J. Barr Let Tomorrow Come 39: Tell us how you tumbled, Red, will you? We all tumbled, too.
1989		J. Morton Lowspeak.

6. to listen.

1955

‘Bailey Morgan’ ‘Dig that Crazy Corpse’ in Pursuit Mar. (2008) 156: The doll nixed me since i sang about body-snatching, but i anticipated you’d want to tumble.

7. to unmask, to recognize as fake.

1959		F. Norman Stand on Me 23: The dealer [...] reckoned [...] no one in the world would be able to tumble it [i.e. a fake picture] in a million years.
1960		L. Davidson Night of Wenceslas 101: [W]hy hadn't she come to see me again? [...] It must have occurred to that busy brain that I might have tumbled her.