(a) a seat attached to the rear of a carriage and typically used by servants (cf. sense 4a); (b) (N. Amer.) an uncovered folding seat in the rear of a two-seater motor car (cf. sense 4b) (cf. dicky n. 9c).
Example | Meaning |
Interviewer: Okay. Do you remember when your family, I guess maybe your parents first got a car? Speaker: Mm, as far as I can remember, they always had one. ... my father had one with a rumble-seat. Interviewer: What's that? Speaker: Ah, the seat is outside. At the back- at the back. ... It um- it was out- it would close up at the back and then you open it, and there was a seat. And so when you were- you were out in the open, sitting. But it was just like a back seat. But it was at the back of the car and out in the open. ... My brother and I used to sit in there. Interviewer: Yeah? Why is it called a rumble-seat? Speaker: You-know, I-don't-know. ... Maybe because it was a rough or-something (laughs). |
An uncovered folding seat in the rear of a two-seater motor car. |
Example | Meaning |
Speaker: ... Bill had this old model-T and did you ever hear of a car with a rumble seat? Interviewer: A rumble seat? No.Speaker: Yeah. This was- it was ah like a one seat in the front but the- you explain what a rumble seat is. Speaker 2: Really just a- a section at the back that came down with another seat in it. ... Speaker: if you didn't want to use it, you just closed it up. But if you had an extra couple people in it you ah you put them in it. Yeah, it was (laughs)- it was the rumble seat. Yeah, that was interesting. |
An uncovered folding seat in the rear of a two-seater motor car. |
Example | Meaning |
And I remember the first film I saw. Now it was in Perth, and it was in the summertime and ah we had a guy work for us who had a nineteen-thirty-four Dodge with a rumble seat, I think it was, and he invited us to come to Perth and see ah the show and my brothers- two brothers and I, sat in this rumble seat in the back and drove to Perth and we saw, "My-Friend-Flicka." |
An uncovered folding seat in the rear of a two-seater motor car. |
Example | Meaning |
And ah they- they- some of them would have ah wagon buggy-type wagons and some of them would have old cars with a rumble seat and ah a contraption on the back where you- you put in this table and ah, milk could sit on there and then when you went to church you'd close the (inc) rumble seat and use the car for that. |
An uncovered folding seat in the rear of a two-seater motor car. |