▪ I. gobble, n. Golf.
(ˈgɒb(ə)l)
[Prob. f. next vb.]
A rapid straight ‘putt’ into the hole.
| 1878 ‘Capt. Crawley’ Football, etc. 83 (Golf) Gobble, a straight quick put at the hole. 1890 Hutchinson Golf (Badm. Libr.) 241 The other may play, with a free hand, for a ‘gobble’. |
▪ II. gobble, v.1
(ˈgɒb(ə)l)
Not now in dignified use. Also 7 goble, gobbel.
[Of obscure origin; prob. a vague formation on gob n.1 or n.2, with suggestion of the sound made by noisy swallowing.]
1. trans. To swallow hurriedly in large mouthfuls, esp. in a noisy fashion. Often with adv., esp. to gobble up, down, formerly † in. Also fig.
| 1601 Holland Pliny I. 516 Birds being hungrie, haue greedily gobled vp seed and fruit whole and sound. 1608 Topsell Serpents (1658) 602 Then they suddenly goble in the beast or meat before them, without any great ado. 1611 Coryat (title), Crudities hastily gobled vp in five Moneths trauells in France [etc.]. 1621 Burton Anat. Mel. ii. ii. i. ii, That which he doth eat, must be well chewed, and not hastily gobbeled. 1729 Swift Lady's Jrnl. 276 The Supper gobbled up in haste, Again afresh to Cards they run. 1742 Blair Grave 646 And thousands at each hour thou gobblest up. 1791 Wolcot (P. Pindar) Rights Kings Wks. 1812 II. 393 How he gobbles down the broth and meal. 1826 T. Jefferson Writ. (1830) IV. 437 To sell it..not to have it gobbled up by speculators. 1845 Hood Fairy Tale ii, A stray horse came, and gobbled up his bower. 1865 G. Macdonald A. Forbes 21 They gobbled down their breakfasts with all noises except articulate ones. 1882 A. Clark in Med. Temp. Jrnl. No. 51. 132, I get home and gobble a hurried dinner. |
2. U.S. slang. To seize upon graspingly or greedily; to snatch up, lay hold of, ‘collar’.
| 1825 J. Neal Bro. Jonathan III. 144 He thought of poor Olive; sprang up—gobbled on the clothes..and set off. 1851 B. H. Hall College Wds., Gobble, at Yale College, to seize; to lay hold of; to appropriate; nearly the same as to collar q.v. 1861 Chicago Evening Post July (Cent.), Nearly four hundred prisoners were gobbled up after the fight, and any quantity of ammunition and provisions. 1888 H. James in Harper's Mag. Feb. 344, I happen to know..that the moment Mr. Pringle should propose to my daughter she would gobble him down. |
3. Comb., as gobble-gut (obs. or vulgar), a glutton; gobble-stitch, a stitch made too long through haste or carelessness.
| 1632 Sherwood, A *goble-gut, gobequinaut, goulard. |
| a 1845 Hood A blow-up, Miss M. the milliner—her fright so strong—Made a great *gobble-stitch, six inches long. 1859 F. E. Paget Cur. Cumberworth 47 A dilapidated green silk parasol..darned in divers places with a sort of gobble-stitch of the same scarlet worsted which adorned her frill. |
Hence ˈgobbling vbl. n. Also ˈgobbler.
| 1632 Sherwood, A gobling, goulardise. 1755 Johnson Gobbler, one that devours in haste; a gormand; a greedy eater. 1852 Q. Rev. Mar. 431 An alderman and a greedy gossiping gobbler. 1873 Helps Anim. & Mast. iii. (1875) 63 Sir Arthur and Milverton are gobblers of books. 1883 Harper's Mag. Dec. 4/2 Christmas..was all guzzling and gobbling. |
▪ III. gobble, v.2
(ˈgɒb(ə)l)
[Imitative, but perh. suggested by prec.]
intr. Of a turkey-cock: To make its characteristic noise in the throat; also rarely transf. Also quasi-trans. with out, over.
Imitative variations (nonce-wds.) are gob-gobble vb. (Southey Doctor I. 119) and goblobling vbl. n. (Bage Barham Downs I. 126).
| 1680 Morden Geog. Rect. (1685) 495 When they speak they gobble like Turkie Cocks. 1709 Prior Ladle 74 Fat Turkeys gobbling at the Door. 1774 Goldsm. Nat. Hist. V. ii. iv. 181 He..struts about the yard, and gobbles out a note of self-approbation. 1820 W. Irving Sketch Bk. II. 365 Regiments of turkeys were gobbling through the farm yard. 1862 Sala Seven Sons I. ix. 210 The turkeys that gobbled over the scandal of the poultry-yard. 1892 R. Kipling in Pall Mall G. 24 Mar. 3/1 A tiny geyser gobbled. |
Hence ˈgobbling vbl. n. and ppl. a.; ˈgobble n., the noise made by a turkey-cock; ˈgobbler, a turkey-cock; also ˈgobblery, turkey-cocks collectively.
| 1737 Bailey vol. II. Canting Words, Gobbler, a Turkey-Cock. 1774 Goldsm. Nat. Hist. V. ii. iv. 180 The turkey cock..with his peculiar gobbling sound, flies to attack it. 1781 Pennant in Phil. Trans. LXXI. 69 On being interrupted they fly into great rages, and change their notes into a loud and guttural gobble. 1784 Wesley Wks. (1872) XIII. 502 He heard as it were the gobbling of a turkey-cock close to the bed-side. 1798 W. Sotheby tr. Wieland's Oberon (1826) I. 50 When cocks at dayspring crow, Then all the goblery..Soon as they [etc.]. 1835 Marryat Jac. Faith. xlvi, The poultry, who would now and then raise a gobble. 1843 Haliburton Attaché I. xi. 197, I never see an old gobbler, with his gorget, that I don't think of a kernel of a marchin' regiment. 1871 Darwin Desc. Man. II. xiii. 60 When the female of the wild turkey utters her call in the morning, the male answers by a different note from the gobbling noise which he makes. 1885 Harper's Mag. Apr. 706/1 The..turkey-tail fan..she had had made from one of her own..gobblers. 1898 Speaker 3 Sept. 286/2 Scratching hens and gobbling turkeys. |