drivel

• (UK) IPA^(key): /dɹɪv.əl/

• Audio (US)

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• Rhymes: -ɪvəl

From Middle English drivelen, drevelen, from Old English dreflian (“to drivel, slobber, slaver”), from Proto-Germanic *drablijaną, from Proto-Indo-European *dʰerebʰ- (“cloudy, turbid; yeast”).

drivel (countable and uncountable, plural drivels)

1. senseless talk; nonsense
2. saliva, drool
3. (obsolete) A fool; an idiot.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Sir Philip Sidney to this entry?)

drivel (third-person singular simple present drivels, present participle (US) driveling or drivelling, simple past and past participle (US) driveled or drivelled)

1. To have saliva drip from the mouth; to drool.
2. To talk nonsense; to talk senselessly.
3. To be weak or foolish; to dote.
   • c. 1591–1595, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Romeo and Ivliet”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act II, (please specify the scene number in lowercase Roman numerals)]:

     This drivelling love is like a great natural, that runs lolling up and down to hide his bauble in a hole.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Dryden to this entry?)

• (have saliva drip from the mouth): drool
• (talk nonsense): See also Thesaurus:nonsense.

Compare Old Dutch drevel, "a scullion".

drivel (plural drivels)

1. (obsolete) A servant; a drudge.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Huloet to this entry?)

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Edmund Spenser to this entry?)

• drivel in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.

• drevil