rumbling

Pluralrumblings

1. 1
   nouncountable

   A deep, low, continuous sound, such as that of thunder or heavy machinery.

   A faint rumbling rolled across the valley before the storm broke.

   The distant rumblings of the volcano kept the villagers awake.

   Similarboom, roll, growl, roar, thunder

2. 2
   adjective

   Producing a deep, low, slowly resonating sound.

   A rumbling bass line ran beneath the entire song.

   The crowd answered with a rumbling cheer that grew louder.

   Similarbooming, thundering, resonant, deep, rolling

   Note

   Here the sound belongs to its source as a quality: a rumbling voice, a rumbling bass. The adjective also moves easily from noise to mood, as in rumbling discontent, where nothing need be heard at all. That same shift gives the noun of complaint its meaning. It compares with more and most (more rumbling, most rumbling), never with -er or -est.

3. 3
   verb

   Present participle and gerund of rumble.

   The trucks were rumbling down the highway before dawn.

   Thunder kept rumbling over the hills for an hour.

   Note

   The -ing form serves every verb sense of rumble, not only the noisy ones. Most are intransitive: thunder rumbling, a controller rumbling in the hand, and in slang, two gangs rumbling in the street. Two senses take an object. Rumbling a scheme means seeing through it, and rumbling metal parts means running them through a polishing machine. The same spelling also works as an adjective and as a noun.

4. 4
   nouncountable

   A low, muffled sound expressing complaint or discontent.

   A rumbling of dissent spread through the assembly after the verdict.

   Management ignored the rumblings from the factory floor for months.

   Similarmurmur, grumbling, muttering, stirring, complaint

   Note

   Discontent that is muttered rather than declared, and so a warning of what may follow. It sits naturally in the plural, with of naming the restless group: the rumblings of the masses, rumblings from the shop floor. The word suggests a grievance still building, and that is why rumblings so often come before an open revolt, a strike or the crumbling of a state.

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