English

Verb

gabble ‎(third-person singular simple present gabbles, present participle gabbling, simple past and past participle gabbled)

1. To talk fast, idly, foolishly, or without meaning.
   • 1611, William Shakespeare, The Tempest, Act I, scene II :

     I pitied thee, took pains to make thee speak, taught thee each hour one thing or other; when thou didst not, savage, know thine own meaning, but wouldst gabble like a thing most brutish

   • 1900, Mark Twain, The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg, ch. 4:

     Then he fell to gabbling strange and dreadful things which were not clearly understandable.

   • 2013, J. M. Coetzee, The Childhood of Jesus. Melbourne, Australia: The Text Publishing Company. chapter 16. p. 144.

     Does she regard him simply as a workman come to do a job for her, someone whom she need never lay eyes on again; or is she gabbling to hide discomfiture?

2. To utter inarticulate sounds with rapidity.

   gabbling fowls

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Dryden to this entry?)

Translations

Synonyms

• babble

Synonyms

• See also Wikisaurus:chatter