Definition of "somersault" [som•er•sault]

• An acrobatic stunt in which the body rolls forward or backward in a complete revolution with the knees bent and the feet coming over the head. Also called somerset; also called regionally tumbleset. (noun)
• A complete reversal, as of sympathies or opinions. (noun)
• To execute a somersault. (verb-intransitive)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "“I know a lot of people are in somersault land,” Representative Rahm Emanuel, Democrat of Illinois and chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, said reproachfully of fellow Democrats."
• "Except he just did some kind of somersault which looked much more agile than anything anyone would have expected of him."
• "Apparently he decided to "somersault" off the bed in the middle of the night and ended up with a bloody nose."