MEANING
1. To move slowly on wheels or with a heavy, rolling movement, or cause something to move that way.
2. To develop or continue at a slow, sometimes unimpressive pace.
3. A low bed that can be rolled or slid beneath a higher bed.
Use it for
describing a heavy cart moving slowly; showing a person’s lumbering progress; contrasting slow rolling movement with a sudden rushSuggests slow, heavy rolling movement, with a figurative extension to sluggish progress and a distinct bed noun. Writing functions: Movement.
Words that belong together
- trundle along the road
- trundle a trolley
- a cart trundles past
On the page
The baggage cart trundled across the empty platform.
He trundled toward the gate in boots still thick with mud.
The inquiry trundled on after the witnesses had lost interest.
The old procedure continued to trundle along, unchanged by the new terminology.
She drew the trundle from beneath the bed and found a folded blanket on it.
Word forms
- Base
- trundle
- Past tense
- trundled
- Past participle
- trundled
- Present participle
- trundling
Full tense & aspect guide
- Present
- trundle
- Present continuous
- am/is/are trundling
- Present perfect
- have/has trundled
- Present perfect continuous
- have/has been trundling
- Past
- trundled
- Past continuous
- was/were trundling
- Past perfect
- had trundled
- Past perfect continuous
- had been trundling
- Future
- will trundle
- Future continuous
- will be trundling
- Future perfect
- will have trundled
- Future perfect continuous
- will have been trundling
Choose the auxiliary that agrees with your subject. These are constructions of one word, not separate entries.
Usage notes
Verb and noun. Trundles, trundled, trundled, trundling; future will trundle. Movement usually trundle along, past, or into. Noun trundles is possible for beds or small wheels. Register: neutral. Commonness: moderately common (qualitative editorial estimate, informed by dictionaries/corpus).
Practice this word in a sentenceYour margin notes
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