▪ I. blabber, n.
(ˈblæbə(r))
[f. blab v. + -er1.]
One who blabs; one who reveals secrets, a tell-tale.
| 1557 North Gueuara's Diall Pr. (1582) 94 a, He was..a great blabber of his tongue. 1624 Heywood Captives v. iii, in Bullen O. Pl. IV, Peace, fellowe Godfrey. I'l now play the blabber. 1793 T. Jefferson Writ. (1830) IV. 491 The indiscretion of this blabber. 1841 D'Israeli Amen. Lit. (1867) 236 Time, that blabber of more fatal secrets. |
▪ II. † ˈblabber, a.
Also 5 blabyr, 6–7 blaber.
[First in comb. blabyr-lyppyd, in the Catholicon 1483, the Prompt. c 1440 having the earlier babbyr-lyppyd, used also by Langland 1377 (see babber-lipped). But there was also a 15–17th c. form blab-lipped (see blab n.2), which is of more simple explanation: cf. blob, blobber, blubber, bubble, all expressing the sense of swelling or inflation.]
Swollen, protruding; said of the lips, and sometimes the cheeks.
| 1552 Huloet, Blabber lyppes, dimissa labra. 1610 Holland Camden's Brit. i. 530 The divels of Crowland, with their blabber lips [labiis pendentibus]. a 1627 Middleton Sp. Gipsy iv. iii, She has full blabber cheeks. 1687 Shadwell Juvenal 108 What ugly blabber-lipps had he! 1833 Coleridge in Fraser's Mag. VII. 177 A waxy face and a blabber lip. [In Poems III. 87 (1834) ‘blubber lip.’] |
Hence blabber-lipped ppl. a.
| [1377, 1440, 1607; see babber-lipped.] 1483 Cath. Angl. 33 Blabyrlyppyd, broccus, labrosus. c 1485 Digby Myst. iii. 927 Ye..blabyr-lyppyd bycchys. 1601 Holland Pliny xi. xxxvii, Others againe who are blabber-lipped are named in Latine Labiones. 1653 Greaves Seraglio 101 The most..blabber-lipped, and flat nosed girles that may be had through all Egypt. 1704 Lond. Gaz. No. 4034/4 Run away..a short Negro Man..blabber Lip'd..long Heel'd. |
▪ III. † blabber, v. Obs.
Forms: 4 blaberen, blaiberen, 5 blaberyn, -veryn, blabir, -yr, 5–6 blaber, 6 blabbar, 7 -or, 6–7 blabber.
[ME. blaberen, late 14th c. Words of similar form appear in other Teut. langs.: cf. ON. blabbra (cited by Rietz), Da. blabbre to babble, gabble, Sw. dial. blaffra to prattle, G. blappern (Grimm), plappern to blab, babble, prate. But the evidence is not sufficient to show whether any of these were actually connected with the English word, or whether they agree only in being natural expressions of the action involved, which seems to be essentially that of producing a confused repetition or combination of labial (b) and lingual (l, r) sounds. It is noteworthy that in the earliest instance quoted, blaberde varies in the MSS. with babeled, bablide, etc.: cf. babble. See further under blab.]
1. intr. To make sounds with the lips and tongue as an infant (cf. sense 3); to speak inarticulately or indistinctly; to babble, to mumble.
| 1362 Langl. P. Pl. A. v. 8 So I blaberde [v.r. blaberid, babelide, -ed, bablide] on my Beodes. 1382 Wyclif 1 Esdr. Prol., The tunge kut of it shal blaberen. c 1505 Kennedie Flyting 344 And blaberis that noyis mennis eris to here. 1530 Palsgr. 456 My sonne dothe but blabber yet, he can nat speke his wordes playne. a 1800 Ballad ‘Ld. Ingram’ xxi, in Child Ballads iii. 131/2 A' was for the bonnie babe That lay blabbering in her bleed. |
b. trans.
| c 1505 Dunbar Flyting 112 Fairar Inglis..Than thow can blabbar with thy Carrik lippis. |
2. intr. To chatter, babble, talk idly or senselessly.
| c 1375 Wyclif Serm. Sel. Wks. I. 376 Þei blaiberen þus for defaute of witt. a 1400 Cov. Myst. 164 Boys now blaberyn. c 1430 Life St. Kath. (1884) 53 Þat oþer cristen peple presume not to blaber aȝenst oure goddes. c 1440 Promp. Parv. 37 Blaberyn, or speke wythe-owte resone, blatero. 1483 Cath. Angl. 33 To Blabyr, blaterare. |
b. trans.; also with out, forth. Cf. blab, blurt.
| c 1380 Wyclif Wks. (1880) 168 Prestis..blabren out matynys and masse..wiþ-outen deuocion and contemplacion. Ibid. 73 Þei prechen not cristis gospel..but blaberen forþe anticristis bullis. 1580 Sidney Arcadia iv. 417 Did blabber out what he had found. 1624 A. H. in J. Davies' Wks. (1878) II. 81 And blabber forth His Funerall, in Rimes. |
† 3. To move the tongue between the lips in mockery. Obs. Cf. blear v.2
| 1530 Palsgr. 456, I blaber, I put forthe the lyppe, as one dothe his tonge in his heed..his tonge blabred in his heed, Je baboye. 1611 Cotgr., Baboyer, to blabber with the lips: to famble, to falter. 1629 Schoole Gd. Manners (Halliw.) To mocke anybody by blabboring out the tongue is the part of..lewd boyes. |