tumble to
She said she could never »tumble to» the district visiting. (Novel Notes 81. 15.)
An actress.
»I reckoned it the very thing she’d tumble to.» (T. T. T. 143. 4.)
Uneducated young man.
The meaning of the above quotations is: (1) she could never get to care for the district visiting; (2) I considered it the very thing she would accept, fall in with.
Another, rather common sense of the expression is: to understand.
»I’m a copper and I know my book,
You can tumble by my saucy look.»
(I am a constable and I know the tricks,
as you can understand by my saucy look.)
(A Street Ballad. 1900.)
