▪ I. brabbling, vbl. n.
(ˈbræblɪŋ)
[f. brabble v.]
1. † a. Cavilling, ‘hair-splitting’ (obs.). b. Wrangling, noisy quarrelling.
| 1532 More Confut. Tindale Wks. 410/2 To beare and abide the brablyng of Tindals tonge. 1561 T. Norton Calvin's Inst. (1634) Pref., With..sophisticall brabblings. 1614 Raleigh Hist. World i. 172 The brabblings of the Aristotelians. 1645 in Somers Tracts I. 35 The Trade of Brabbling and Pettifogging. 1865 Carlyle Fredk. Gt. I. iii. iii. 148 Brabblings, scufflings, objurgations. |
† 2. A confusion, a jumble. Obs.—0
| 1530 Palsgr. 617/2, I make a brablyng, je barbouille. |
▪ II. ˈbrabbling, ppl. a. arch.
[f. as prec. + -ing2.]
† a. Disposed to cavil or quibble, (obs.); b. litigious, quarrelsome; c. tumultuous, riotous.
| 1549 Coverdale Par. Erasm. Gal. v. 14 The brablyng law with so many rules. 1577 Harrison England ii. ii. (1877) 53 In a brabling fraie, one of hir men was slaine. 1603 H. Crosse Vertues Commw. (1878) 63 Violent extortion, brabling suites, and vniust vexations. 1633 P. Fletcher Elisa xxii, Brabbling lawyers' brawls. [1855 Motley Dutch Rep. ii. viii. (1866) 294 Commerce would have no security at Antwerp ‘in those brabbling times’.] |