drivel
Syllables: driv·elUK/dɹɪv.əl/
More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations
New Zealand/dɹəv.əl/
drivel noun: nonsense; senseless talk.
Noun (1)
drivel (countable and uncountable, plural drivels)
- Nonsense; senseless talk.
- “You pay too much attention to such insipid drivel in even mentioning it.”1879, Henry James, chapter XVII, in Confidence, London: Chatto & Windus
- But what drivel I am writing! It is just an attempt to pass the weary time.1913, Arthur Conan Doyle, “(please specify the page)”, in The Poison Belt […], London; New York, N.Y.: Hodder and Stoughton, →OCLC
- Synonyms:
- absurdity, all my eye, all my eye and Betty Martin, apple grease, applesauce, bafflegab, balderdash, balls, baloney, banana oil
- Saliva, drool.
- He pauses as I wipe the drivel from his chin.1997, Mike Allen, “Super Shopper”, in Fresh from Mount Salvage, Elizabethtown, Ky.: Light Lines Press, →ISBN, page 122
- He wiped drivel from his chin with a stubby forearm.2008, Jeff Stone, chapter 8, in Eagle (The Five Ancestors; 5), New York, N.Y.: Yearling, Random House Children’s Books, →ISBN, page 57
Verb (1)
drivel (third-person singular simple present drivels, present participle (US) driveling or (UK) drivelling, simple past and past participle (US) driveled or (UK) drivelled)
- To talk nonsense; to talk senselessly; to drool.
- To have saliva drip from the mouth.
- Synonyms:
- drool
- To be weak or foolish; to dote.
- This drivelling love is like a great natural, that runs lolling up and down to hide his bauble in a hole.c. 1591–1595 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Romeo and Ivliet”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and...
- driveling dotard1693, Decimus Junius Juvenalis, John Dryden, transl., “[The Satires of Decimus Junius Juvenalis.] The Sixth Satyr”, in The Satires of Decimus Junius Juvenalis. Translated into English Verse. […]...
Noun (2)
drivel (plural drivels)
- A servant; a drudge.
- that foul aged drivel1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book IV, Canto II”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC
- A fool; an idiot.
- if thou didst know what a life I lead with that drivel, it would make thee even of pity receive me into thy only comforta. 1587, Philippe Sidnei [i.e., Philip Sidney], “(please specify the folio)”, in [Fulke Greville; Matthew Gwinne; John Florio], editors, The Countesse of Pembrokes Arcadia [The New Arcadia], London...
Verb (2)
drivel (third-person singular simple present drivels, present participle (US) driveling or (UK) drivelling, simple past and past participle (US) driveled or (UK) drivelled)
- To move or travel slowly.
- But that is a state of things, which must in time work its own cure. We cannot always go dribbling and drivelling along, government and people alike being the scoff of all onlookers.1865 October 7, The Mercury, Hobart, page 2
- There was a good deal of bustle and life at the inn; but three or four inebriates drivelling about the premises were 'suffering a recovery,' from the excitement of the previous night's entertainment.1872 October 29, The Newcastle Chronicle, NSW, page 4
- To use up or to be used up.
- Instead of drivelling away the precious initiative season of life in the vain labour of teaching tuneable voices to sing[.]1858 August 17, The Ovens and Murray Advertiser, Beechworth, Vic, page 2
- It is for the country to say whether we are to keep on in this backward course, whether we are to go on getting deeper and deeper into debt, whether we are to have increased taxation year after year. The bone and sinew of the land is drivelling away.1872 August 31, The Mercury, Hobart, page 2
drivel meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Telugu
drivel in Hindi
- saliva, drool
- लार lār
drivel in Tamil
- எளிமையான, கீழ்மையான, சிறுமையான
drivel in Urdu
- drivel, saliva
- لار lār
drivel in Telugu
- drivel, saliva, slobber issuing or dribbling from the mouth
- చొంగ coṅga
More languagesFewer languages
- drivel in Malayalam
- തുപ്പൽ, ഈത്ത, വ്യർത്ഥസംസാരം, ഈത്താ ഒലിപ്പിക്കുക
- drivel in Kannada
- ಬಡಬಡಿಸು, ದುಂದು ಮಾಡು, ಪೋಲು ಮಾಡು, ಜೊಲ್ಲು ಸುರಿ
- drivel in Punjabi
- ਪਾਣੀ pāṇī
Examples of drivel in a sentence
- That this single report stood out so clearly as an exemplar is a scathing comment in itself on the volumes of drivel surrounding it.2020 August 26, Nigel Harris, “Comment Special: Catastrophe at Carmont”, in Rail, page 4:
- Oh, wait, that was me.” “Drivel for the unwashed.2024 November 25, Max Brockman, “P.I. Undercover: New York” (1:41 from the start), in What We Do in the Shadows, season 6, episode 8...
- She wipes some drivel from his chin with a Kleenex, which she throws away in the bin, then sits and clasps his hand in hers.2012, Roland Curram, “Life Changes”, in The Problem with Happiness, Kibworth Beauchamp, Leicestershire: Matador, →ISBN, part 1, page 82:
- He went drivelling off in pursuit of her "dear little work-worn hands"[.]1914 May 30, The Darling Downs Gazette, Qld, page 2:
Synonyms of drivel
- absurdity
- all my eye
- all my eye and Betty Martin
- bafflegab
- balderdash
- balls
- baloney
- Bandini
- baragouin
- batcrap
30 more synonymsFewer synonyms
Forms of drivel
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | drivels |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | drivels |
| present participle US | driveling |
| present participle UK | drivelling |
| past participle US | driveled |
| past US | driveled |
| past participle UK | drivelled |
| past UK | drivelled |
Origin of drivel
From Middle English dravel, dribil, a deverbal from drevelen, drivelen (Etymology 2).
From Middle English drevelen, drivelen, from Old English dreflian (“to drivel, slobber, slaver”), from Proto-Germanic *drablijaną, from Proto-Indo-European *dʰerebʰ- (“cloudy, turbid; yeast”).
From Middle English drivel, probably from driven + -el, unless borrowed from an equivalent word in another West Germanic language. Compare Old Dutch drevel (“scullion”).
Words formed from drivel
Words that rhyme with drivel
Questions about drivel
- What does drivel mean?
- Drivel means nonsense; senseless talk.
- What is drivel in Hindi?
- Drivel in Hindi is लार (lār). See Drivel meaning in Hindi.
- How do you use drivel in a sentence?
- That this single report stood out so clearly as an exemplar is a scathing comment in itself on the volumes of drivel surrounding it.
- What part of speech is drivel?
- Drivel can be a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce drivel?
- Drivel is pronounced /dɹɪv.əl/ (UK).
- What is the plural of drivel?
- The plural of drivel is drivels.
Words near drivel in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: drivel (page history and authors); drivel (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); لار (Urdu) (page history and authors); చొంగ (Telugu) (page history and authors); drivel (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); drivel (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); ਪਾਣੀ (Punjabi) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-drivel.ogg.
Cite this entry: “drivel.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/drivel. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.