Word.ws English Dictionary

drivelling

drivelling is the present participle and gerund of drivel.

Adjective

drivelling (comparative more drivelling, superlative most drivelling)

  1. That drivels or drools.
    • a drivelling idiot
  2. Idiotic, incomprehensible; senseless.
    • drivelling nonsense
  3. Overcome to the point of being mindless or inarticulate.
    • "How do you feel now?" 'In a perfectly drivelling state of contentment. That dinner was delightful."1950, Norman Lindsay, Dust or Polish?, Sydney: Angus and Robertson, page 171

Meaning of drivel

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)

  1. To talk nonsense; to talk senselessly; to drool.
  2. (archaic, intransitive) To have saliva drip from the mouth.
    Synonyms:
    drool
  3. 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...

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)

  1. (obsolete) 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
  2. (obsolete) 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

See all 9 meanings of drivel

Noun

drivelling (plural drivellings)

  1. Foolish talk.
    • the drivellings of an idiot
    • He continued his chat with Sir James about the poachers until they were all seated, and Mrs. Cadwallader, impatient of this drivelling, said— “I’m dying to know the sad news. The gamekeeper is not shot: that is settled. What is it, then?”1871–1872, George Eliot [pseudonym; Mary Ann Evans], chapter LXXXIV, in Middlemarch […], volume (please specify |volume=I to IV), Edinburgh; London: William Blackwood and Sons, →OCLC, book VIII

Forms of drivelling

Noun
pluraldrivellings
Adjective
comparativemore drivelling
superlativemost drivelling

Questions about drivelling

What does drivelling mean?
Drivelling means foolish talk.
What is drivelling the present participle and gerund of?
Drivelling is the present participle and gerund of drivel.
What part of speech is drivelling?
Drivelling can be a noun or an adjective.
What is the plural of drivelling?
The plural of drivelling is drivellings.

Words near drivelling in the dictionary

  1. drivelingly
  2. drivelings
  3. drivelled
  4. driveller
  5. drivellers
  6. drivelling
  7. drivellingly
  8. drivellings
  9. drivellous
  10. drivelous
  11. drivels

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: drivelling (page history and authors); drivel (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.

Last updated:

Cite this entry: “drivelling.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/drivelling. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.