RUMBLING

Pronunciation (US):

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does rumbling mean? 

• RUMBLING (noun)
  The noun RUMBLING has 1 sense:

1. a loud low dull continuous noise

  Familiarity information: RUMBLING used as a noun is very rare.

• RUMBLING (adjective)
  The adjective RUMBLING has 1 sense:

1. continuous full and low-pitched throbbing sound

  Familiarity information: RUMBLING used as an adjective is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• RUMBLING (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A loud low dull continuous noise

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural events

Synonyms:

grumble; grumbling; rumble; rumbling

Context example:

they heard the rumbling of thunder

Hypernyms ("rumbling" is a kind of...):

noise (sound of any kind (especially unintelligible or dissonant sound))

Derivation:

rumble (to utter or emit low dull rumbling sounds)

rumble (make a low noise)

• RUMBLING (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Continuous full and low-pitched throbbing sound

Synonyms:

grumbling; rumbling

Context example:

the rumbling rolling sound of thunder

Similar:

full ((of sound) having marked deepness and body)

 Context examples 

The night had been exceedingly still, but as I advanced I became conscious of a low, rumbling sound, a continuous murmur, somewhere in front of me.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

It was now dark; but a rumbling of wheels was audible.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

The sky was darkened, and a low rumbling sound was heard in the air.

(The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, by L. Frank Baum)

Immense glaciers approached the road; I heard the rumbling thunder of the falling avalanche and marked the smoke of its passage.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

And away he went, rumbling out the words with his strong voice and a relish which was good to see as well as hear.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

The she-wolf stood over against her cub, facing the men, with bristling hair, a snarl rumbling deep in her throat.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

The deep-sea voices of these men, rumbling and bellowing in the confined space, produced a wild effect.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

The howl and roar, the rattling of the doors and windows, the rumbling in the chimneys, the apparent rocking of the very house that sheltered me, and the prodigious tumult of the sea, were more fearful than in the morning.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

The cub reporter was an artist, and it was a large brush with which he laid on the local color—wild-eyed long-haired men, neurasthenic and degenerate types of men, voices shaken with passion, clenched fists raised on high, and all projected against a background of oaths, yells, and the throaty rumbling of angry men.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

One of them gave a deep rumbling groan and dropped his huge squat head on to the earth.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)