rumble-bumble

noun

Blather; worthless talk or ideas.

Meanings

nounrumble-bumble (uncountable)
  1. dateduncountableBlather; worthless talk or ideas.
    2 more examples

    How pleasant it is to turn from all the rumble-bumble about a great man to the great man himself, and this is especially the case with Thomas Hardy. It is like turning from the department-store counter where they sell rose-water, passing through a door and suddenly finding oneself amid the silence, the brooding immensity, the unchangeable, untameable wildness of Egdon Heath.

    1927, Canadian Bookman, volumes 9-10, page 265

    Of late the professors of semantics have divided into two factions. The first, led by metaphysicians, lifts the elemental business of communicating ideas to the level of a baffling and somewhat sinister arcanum standing midway between the geometry of the fourth dimension and the Freudian rumble-bumble; the other, led by popularizers, converts it into a club for use upon the skulls of enemies of the current New Deals.

    1945, Henry Louis Mencken, The American Language, page 102
Cite this entry
APA

rumble-bumble. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/rumble-bumble

MLA

“rumble-bumble.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/rumble-bumble. Accessed November 2, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “rumble-bumble,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/rumble-bumble.

Source: rumble-bumble on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.