gabble

See also: gable

English

Etymology

gab +‎ -le, frequentative.

Pronunciation
  • IPA(key): /ˈɡæbəl/
  • Rhymes: -æbəl

Verb

gabble (third-person singular simple present gabbles, present participle gabbling, simple past and past participle gabbled)

  1. (transitive, intransitive) To talk fast, idly, foolishly, or without meaning.
    • 1611, William Shakespeare, The Tempest, Act I, scene II :
      I pitied thee, took pains to make thee speak, taught thee each hour one thing or other; when thou didst not, savage, know thine own meaning, but wouldst gabble like a thing most brutish
    • 1900, Mark Twain, chapter 4, in The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg:
      Then he fell to gabbling strange and dreadful things which were not clearly understandable.
    • 2013, J. M. Coetzee, The Childhood of Jesus. Melbourne, Australia: The Text Publishing Company. chapter 16. p. 144.
      Does she regard him simply as a workman come to do a job for her, someone whom she need never lay eyes on again; or is she gabbling to hide discomfiture?
  2. To utter inarticulate sounds with rapidity.
    gabbling fowls
    (Can we find and add a quotation of Dryden to this entry?)

Translations
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Translations to be checked

Synonyms

Noun

gabble (uncountable)

  1. Confused or unintelligible speech.

Synonyms
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