▪ I. gabble, n.
(ˈgæb(ə)l)
[f. the vb.]
1. Voluble, noisy, confused, unintelligible talk.
| 1602 Marston Ant. & Mel. ii. Wks. 1856 I. 26 Taint not thy sweete eare With that sots gabble. 1667 Milton P.L. xii. 56 Forthwith a hideous gabble rises loud Among the Builders. 1750 Johnson Rambler No. 74 ¶10 Where there are children, she hates the gabble of brats. 1806–7 J. Beresford Miseries Hum. Life (1826) v. iv, A crew of savages whose laughter and gabble are all that you are allowed to hear. 1830 J. Jekyll Corr. 8 July (1894) 241 Holland House..is..the very focus of political gabble. 1862 Lowell Biglow P. Poems 1890 II. 346 Gabble's the short cut to ruin. 1874 Green Short Hist. viii. §3. 480 The stately reserve [of Charles]..contrasted favourably with the gabble and indecorum of his father. |
2. The inarticulate noises made by animals.
| 1601 Shakes. All's Well iv. i. 22 Choughs language, gabble enough, and good enough. 1638 Shirley Mart. Souldier III. i. in Bullen O. Pl. I. 203 If they do but once open and spend there gabble, gabble, gabble, it will make the Forest ecchoe. 1644 Milton Areop. (Arb.) 72 In their envious gabble [the birds] would prognosticat a year of sects and schisms. 1847 L. Hunt Jar Honey iv. (1848) 48 The turtles stun one with their yawning gabble. |
▪ II. gabble, v.
(ˈgæb(ə)l)
Also 7 gable.
[onomatopœic; cf. gabber and the words there cited; also MDu. gabbeln of similar meaning; and gaggle v.]
1. intr. To talk volubly, inarticulately and incoherently; to chatter, jabber, prattle. Also, to read so fast as to be unintelligible.
| 1577 Stanyhurst Descr. Irel. i. 4 in Holinshed Chron. I, He that dooth not perceyue, what is fitting or decent for euerye season, or gabbleth more then he hath commission to doe. 1601 Shakes. Twel. N. ii. iii. 95 Haue you no wit, manners, nor honestie, but to gabble like Tinkers at this time of night? 1628 Ford Lover's Mel. ii. i, I'll keep the old man in chat, whilst thou gabblest to the girl. 1663 Butler Hud. i. i. 101 Which made some think when he did gabble Th' had heard three Labourers of Babel. 1768–74 Tucker Lt. Nat. (1852) I. 36 A careless nurse..gabbling among her gossips, without attention to her charge. 1810 Crabbe Borough vi. Wks. 1834 III. 122 And lisps and gabbles if he tries to talk. 1829 Lytton Disowned 7 Are you still gabbling at the foot of the table. 1860–1 F. Nightingale Nursing 402 If there is some matter which must be read to a sick person, do it slowly. People often think that the way to get it over with least fatigue to him is to get it over in least time. They gabble. 1868 Hawthorne Amer. Note-Bks. (1879) I. 48 We could hear them within the hut, gabbling merrily. |
| quasi-trans. 1849 C. Brontë Shirley i, The confusion of tongues which has gabbled me deaf as a post. |
2. trans. To utter rapidly and unintelligibly. Also with over.
| 1758 Monthly Rev. 308 Gabbling infidelity and laughing at the religion of his country. 1794 Mathias Purs. Lit. (1798) 382 He..like Macpherson, glibly gabbles Erse. 1798 Coleridge Fears in Solit. 72 We gabble o'er the oaths we mean to break. 1829 Scott Jrnl. 13 July, Gabbling eternally much that I did, and more that I did not, understand. 1851 D. Jerrold St. Giles xxii. 222 Tangle rolled upon his side, gabbling something in his sleep. 1870 R. B. Brough Marston Lynch xxxi. 342 The contemptuous haste of an actor gabbling a part. |
3. Of geese, etc.: To utter with rapidity inarticulate sounds. More commonly gaggle.
| 1697 Dryden Virg. Past. ix. 48, I..gabble like a Goose, amidst the Swan-like Quire. 1770 Goldsm. Des. Vill. 112 The noisy geese that gabbled o'er the pool. 1820 Byron Mar. Fal. iv. ii. 299 The geese in the Capitol..gabbled Till Rome awoke. 1865 S. Evans Bro. Fabian's MS. 23 Gabbling and plashing half across the pool..Wrestles the gander. |