to fall; to come down; to bump into, to come across; to be received by (when making a telephone call); to become, to get
“Un tamis placé à l'intérieur du dispositif empêchera les choses de tomber dans le tube.” — A screen placed inside the device will keep things from falling into the tube.
Inherited from Middle French tomber, from Old French tomber, tumber (“to dance, leap, do somersaults”), itself either of expressive/onomatopoeic origin (compare also Catalan and Portuguese tombar; Spanish tumbar; Romanian tumbă; Italian tombolare etc.), or alternatively more likely from Frankish *tumbōn, tūmōn (“to rotate, reel, sway”), from Proto-Germanic *tūmōną (“to turn, rotate”), of uncertain origin. More at tumb. Displaced the native choir, inherited from cadō.