▪ I. ˈburble, n.1
Forms: 4 burbel, 5 burbulle, -byl(l(e, 6 burbul, 5–7 burble.
[f. burble v.: cf. bubble n. With sense 2 cf. the use of OF. bubette in the two senses of pimple, swelling, and ‘bulle d'air dans l'eau’ (Godef.).]
† 1. Obs. a. A bubble, bubbling.
| c 1350 Legendae Catholicae, Marie Maud. 239 A litel child..The se it was comen tille Therwith it made michel gale With gret stones and with smale And playd with burbels of the water. 1483 Cath. Angl. 47 A Burbylle in y⊇ water. bulla. 1530 Palsgr. 202/1 Burble in the water, bubette. 1547 Boorde Brev. Health lxxiii. 21 b, A wyndy spume the which is full of burbles. |
b. quasi-adj. Bubbling.
| c 1430 Lydg. Chorle & Birde (1818) 3 The burbill [v.r. burbly] wawes in their up boyllyng. |
† 2. A pimple; a boil. Obs.
| 1555 Eden Decades W. Ind. (Arb.) 266 Certeine pimples or burbuls. 1610 P. Barrough Meth. Physick vii. iv. (1639) 387 As often as burbles are broken in the bowels. 1622 Malynes Anc. Law-Merch. 77 Iacinths..have commonly pimples or burbles in them. |
3. A murmurous flow of words.
| 1898 G. W. Steevens With Kitchener to Khartum 33 An inarticulate burble more like the sound of a distant railway train than any known form of human speech. 1909 J. H. Skrine Pastor Ovium 140 What I listened to was a burble of platitudes in a honeyed voice. 1923 Blackw. Mag. Dec. 767/1 The low burble of petition-reading and the murmurous flow of false evidence were still proceeding. |
4. attrib., as burble point, the point at which the smooth flow of air over an airfoil is broken up.
| 1918 Cowley & Levy Aeronautics in Theory & Experiment ii. 25 At the burble point the lifting force drops sharply and just as quickly rises again. 1918 W. E. Dommett Dict. Aircraft 11 Burble point, that point on the lift curve of a wing which is reached when the angle of incidence has become so great that the stream lines change from a steady to a fluctuating and eddying state, causing the lift to fade and the drag to increase. 1920 Conquest I. 439/2 The angle at which the loss of lift is first noticed is called the ‘critical angle’ or ‘burble point’. |
▪ II. burble, n.2 Sc. dial.
[see burble v.2]
‘Trouble, perplexity, disorder’ (Jam.).
| 1812 Case, Moffat 45 (Jam.) He always made burbles, by which the deponent understood trouble. 1836 Carlyle in Froude Life (1885) I. 78 Much that was a burble will begin to unravel itself. |
▪ III. † ˈburble, v.1 Obs.
Also 4 burbull, (5 brobill), 6 burbyll, -bul.
[Found c1300. There are several similar forms in Romanic: It. borbogliare to make a rumbling or grumbling noise, Pg. borbulhar, Sp. borbollar to bubble forth, also mod. Picard borbouller to murmur (Diez); all apparently imitative words, though Diez thinks the Sp. and Pg. possibly formed on L. bulla bubble. The Eng. word can hardly have any actual connexion with these, exc. as a parallel onomatopœia, expressing the sound made by the agitation, issuing forth, or flowing of a liquid mixed with vesicles of air or gas. Of this the later bubble appears to have been either a simple variant or a conscious modification. In the later use of burble there is more of the notion of flowing than in bubble, as though burble combined the notions of bubble and purl; but the n. burble was in 14–16th c. exactly = L. bulla ‘bubble’.]
1. a. intr. To form vesicles or bubbles like boiling water; to rise in bubbles; to flow in or with bubbles, or with bubbling sound.
| 1303 R. Brunne Handl. Synne 10207 As þoȝ here yȝen shulde burble out. c 1440 Promp. Parv. 56 Burblon [1499 burbelyn], as ale or oþer lykore, bullo. 1470–85 Malory Arthur x. ii, A fayre welle, with clere water burbelynge. 1530 Palsgr. 459/2 To boyle up or burbyll up as a water dothe in a spring, bouilloner. 1577 W. Vallans Two Swannes in Leland's Itin. (1759) V. 10 To Whitwell short, whereof doth burbling rise The spring, that makes this little river runne. |
b. To form bubbles in water, etc., to gurgle; cf. burl v.2
| c 1400 Destr. Troy 5760 Hom was leuer..be brittnet in batell, þen burbull in the flod. c 1440 MS. Lincoln A. i. 17 f. 115 (Halliw.) Many a balde manne laye there swykede, Brobillande in his blode. |
2. a. To speak murmurously; to ‘ramble’ on. b. trans. To say (something) murmurously or in a rambling manner. Also transf.
| [1871 ‘Lewis Carroll’ Through Looking-Glass i. 22 The Jabberwock..Came whiffling through the tulgey wood, And burbled as it came!] 1891 Kipling Light that Failed viii, You only burble and call me names. 1906 B. von Hutten What became of Pam iii. iv, Miss Wantage..began to burble, and then to roar. 1920 Mulford J. Nelson vii. 67 ‘Forty feet of rope an' a sycamore tree,’ burbled Smitty. 1921 Blackw. Mag. July 31/2 A sleepy dinner it was. We burbled a few plans for next day, and fell asleep by the fire. 1934 T. E. Lawrence Let. 6 Aug. (1938) 813 You send me a sensible working-man of a letter..and I burble back in this unconscionable way. 1965 Parade 15 May, ‘I think they just called our flight number,’ burbled Carter. |
Hence ˈburbler n.; ˈburbling vbl. n. and ppl. a.
| a 1528 Skelton Replyc., These..friscairly yonkerkyns..basked and baththed in their..burblyng and boyling blode. 1555 Eden Decades W. Ind. ii. ii. (Arb.) 113 The burbulinge of the sande declared the sea to bee..shalowe. 1609 Ev. Wom. in Hum. ii. i. in Bullen O. Pl. IV, The Meridian Sol Discern'd a dauncing in the burbling brook. 1622 J. Hagthorpe in Farr S.P. (1848) 346 Burbling streames. 1920 Blackw. Mag. July 44/2 They..hold his answering burblings to be the divine voice of Kali. 1923 Kipling Land & Sea Tales 139 Now are you satisfied, you burbler? 1934 Punch 7 Mar. 280/2 Lady Placidia was a confirmed burbler, and if at times she is in danger of exceeding her burbling allowance, she remains entirely lovable and amusing. |
▪ IV. ˈburble, v.2 Sc. dial.
[Cf. F. barbouiller ‘to jumble, confound, huddle, or mingle ill-fauouredly’ (Cotgr.), and its cognates: cf. esp. Catalan borbollar to perplex, bewilder. But actual connexion between these and the Sc. word is not evidenced. Cf. barbulye.]
trans. To perplex, confuse, muddle.
| 1843 Mrs. Carlyle Lett. (1883) I. 244 His external life fallen into a horribly burbled state. |