▪ I. drabble, v.
(dræb(ə)l)
[ME. drabelen = LG. (EFris.) drabbeln to walk or wade about in water or liquid mud, to paddle; to splash, bespatter: cf. drabbe thick dirty liquid, mire, drabbig muddy, miry, turbid; also early mod.Du. drabben to run about, tramp about.]
1. intr. To become wet and dirty by dabbling in, or trailing through, water or mire.
| a 1400–50 Alexander 232 Diȝt as a Doctour in drabland wedis. 15.. Hye way to Spyttel Hous 116 in Hazl. E.P.P. IV. 28 Brechles, bare foted, all stynkyng with dyrt, With M. [= a thousand] of tatters drabblyng to the shyrt. 1565 J. Sparke in Hawkins' Voy. (1878) 61 Being put vpon a hooke drabling in the water. a 1712 W. King Art of Love iv. (R.) Who shall all this rabble meet, But Gnossy, drabbling in the street? 1807–8 W. Irving Salmag. v. (1824) 74 The poor fellows who had to drabble through the..mire. |
2. trans. To make wet and dirty by contact with muddy water or mire. Also in extended use.
| c 1440 Promp. Parv. 129/2 Drabelyn, paludo. 1599 Nashe Lenten Stuffe 6 Spreading their drabled sailes..abroad a drying. 1792 Trans. Soc. Arts X. 47 Heavy showers of rain..which has drabbled the Corn. 1867 Jrnl. R. Agric. Soc. Ser. ii. III. ii. 529 Clip off the down at the tail to prevent their being drabbled. 1903 Kipling Five Nations vii, Across the sad valleys all drabbled with rain. 1923 Chambers's Jrnl. 89/2 Thews who..drabbled graybeards in their blood. |
3. Angling. (intr.) To fish for barbel, etc. with a rod and a line threaded through a leaden bullet so that the hook may be trailed along the bottom.
| 1799 G. Smith Laboratory II. 272 The right method of drabbling, as it is termed..for gudgeons. |
Hence ˈdrabbled ppl. a., wet with dirty water, or with dragging in the mire; ˈdrabbling vbl. n. and ppl. a.; also drabble-tail, a slattern, draggle-tail; drabble-tailed a.
| a 1400–50 Drabbling [see 1]. c 1440 Promp. Parv. 129/2 Draplyd (v.r. drablyd), paludosus. 1599 Drabbled [see 2]. a 1825 Forby Voc. E. Anglia, Drabble-tail, a slattern, who allows her garments to trail after her in the dirt. 1825 Brockett N.C. Gloss., Drabbl'd, Drabble-tailed, dirtied. |
▪ II. drabble, n.
[f. prec. vb.]
1. The action or process of drabbling for fish.
| 1799 G. Smith Laboratory II. 269 When you angle for this fish at the bottom, on the drabble. |
2. A contemptuous term for drabbled people.
| 1789 Wolcott (P. Pindar) Tithe Rencounter x. 1 Some Presbyterian rabble..Or some fierce Methodistic drabble. |