Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A small stream: same as runnel.
  • noun A moat with water in it.
  • noun A circular line or path; a ring; an orbit.
  • noun Something disposed in circular form; a circular or encircling arrangement; specifically, a peritrochium.
  • noun A ball.
  • noun A rung of a ladder; a round.
  • noun That part of a capstan round which a rope is wound in heaving.
  • noun One of the bars of a lantern-wheel; a rung.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun A round; a step of a ladder; a rung.
  • noun obsolete A ball.
  • noun Something which rotates about an axis, as a wheel, or the drum of a capstan.
  • noun (Mach.) One of the pins or trundles of a lantern wheel.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun obsolete A round; a step of a ladder; a rung.
  • noun obsolete A ball.
  • noun obsolete Something that rotates about an axis, such as a wheel or the drum of a capstan.
  • noun engineering, obsolete One of the pins or trundles of a lantern wheel.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun one of the crosspieces that form the steps of a ladder

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

English round. Compare rondle, roundel.

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Examples

  • "If we both live long enough, Doctor, you may see me on the topmost rundle, for I shall climb with unwearying effort."

    The Allen House 1847

  • In like manner, from throw and roll is made troll, and almost in the same sense is trundle, from throw or thrust, and rundle.

    A Grammar of the English Tongue Samuel Johnson 1746

  • "Aweel, sirs," I exclaimed, "ye see there isna ony creatur here, our nainsell's out-taken; seek again an ye winna creed a bodie; may be the bogle is jumpit into the pot on the rundle-tree ower the ingle, or creepit into the meal ark or aiblins it scoupit thro 'the hole as ye cam in at the door.

    The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction Volume 10, No. 289, December 22, 1827 Various

  • I should get to be a fright -- a bundle of bones and a rundle of skin -- and you'd be horrified -- I couldn't bear it. "

    Viviette William John Locke 1896

  • In the contest for position that you must wage with these, all your powers will be taxed; and if you reach the topmost rundle to which you aspire, success will be, indeed, a proud achievement. "

    The Allen House 1847

Comments

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  • Each tumbrel its despairing bundles

    To death by the blade slowly trundles.

    At Guillotine's ladder

    What effort is sadder

    Than climbing of those bloody rundles.

    August 19, 2015