Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun One, such as a social director or entertainer, who encourages guest or audience participation.
- noun One who incites others to action.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun An employee - usually male - of a Catskill Mountains resort charged with the duty of entertaining guests throughout the day by providing any number of services, from comedian to master of ceremonies.
- noun A lively, puckish man.
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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Part resident comic, part activities director, part hotel cheerleader, the tummler - derived from the Yiddish word for noisemaker - was expected to field guest complaints, organize talent shows, jump into the pool fully clothed or dash screaming through the lobby pursued by a knife-wielding chef.
Archive 2005-08-01 2005
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Part resident comic, part activities director, part hotel cheerleader, the tummler - derived from the Yiddish word for noisemaker - was expected to field guest complaints, organize talent shows, jump into the pool fully clothed or dash screaming through the lobby pursued by a knife-wielding chef.
Bull Moose 2005
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I was going to say Abe Rosenthal called me a tummler, which is Yiddish for a sort of mover and shaker.
The Girls in the Balcony: Women, Men, and the New York Times 1992
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As in previous shows, she re-creates a Sophie Tucker routine, "Max From the Income Tax," which ostensibly is about economic chaos but reveals more about her fascination with Tucker, a Jewish tummler who for 60 years made herself the butt literally of her own jokes about being a zaftig farbissina.
Highlights and Dark Nights Will Friedwald 2012
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Teaching piano, she also played at rehearsals for producer Max Liebman when Danny Kaye (born David Daniel Kominsky), a Catskill tummler, auditioned for “Sunday Night Varieties” at Tamiment in the Poconos.
Sylvia Fine. 2009
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In fact, when Reiner brought the character back after 30 plus years on an episode of 'Mad About You', it was hinted that he did carry on back in his Catskills tummler days.
O'BSERVATIONS: THE LETTERMAN CASE Toby O'B 2009
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In fact, when Reiner brought the character back after 30 plus years on an episode of 'Mad About You', it was hinted that he did carry on back in his Catskills tummler days.
Archive 2009-09-27 Toby O'B 2009
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To put patients at ease, he banters like a borscht-belt tummler, delivering a stream of corny old jokes.
A Touch of Grace: 2008
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If you were not my own son, and if instead she was my daughter, I would not let her go out with a tummler like you.
Closing Time Joseph Heller 1994
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Abe Rosenthal called me a sort of inveterate tummler.
The Girls in the Balcony: Women, Men, and the New York Times 1992
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As both magician and mnemonist, he was a direct, gleeful scion of the 19th-century midway pitchman and the 20th-century borscht belt tummler.
Harry Lorayne, Dazzling Master of Total Recall, Is Dead at 96 By 2023
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As both magician and mnemonist, he was a direct, gleeful scion of the 19th-century midway pitchman and the 20th-century borscht belt tummler.
Harry Lorayne, Dazzling Master of Total Recall, Is Dead at 96 By 2023
john commented on the word tummler
"A startlingly flamboyant man who moves like Pee-wee Herman on amphetamines, Krazy Tyrone, né Paul Krohn, is the last of the Catskills ''tummlers,'' the in-house jesters whose sole job is to keep hotel guests amused before, during and after the all-you-can eat meals. "
The New York Times, From the Catskills' Last House Jester, Kosher Corn, by Andrew Jacobs, August 5, 2005
June 18, 2008
qms commented on the word tummler
He dances, who once was a stumbler.
She sings, who once was a mumbler.
The shy and unsure
Find solace and cure
Emboldened by wine and the tummler.
April 17, 2018