Word.ws English Dictionary

gabbling

gabbling is the present participle and gerund of gabble.

Meaning of gabble

Verb

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

  1. (ambitransitive) To talk fast, idly, foolishly, or without meaning.
    • 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 brutish1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published...
  2. To utter inarticulate sounds with rapidity.
    • gabbling fowls

See all 3 meanings of gabble

Noun

gabbling (plural gabblings)

  1. Rapid, confused speech.
    • the gabblings of a madman
    • […] I could hear nothing but a low gabbling; but at last the voices began to grow higher, and I could pick up a word or two […]1881–1882, Robert Louis Stevenson, Treasure Island, London; Paris: Cassell & Company, published 14 November 1883, →OCLC

Forms of gabbling

pluralgabblings

Questions about gabbling

What does gabbling mean?
Gabbling means rapid, confused speech.
What is gabbling the present participle and gerund of?
Gabbling is the present participle and gerund of gabble.
What part of speech is gabbling?
Gabbling is a noun.
What is the plural of gabbling?
The plural of gabbling is gabblings.

Words near gabbling in the dictionary

  1. gabbler
  2. gabbleratchet
  3. gabbleratchets
  4. gabblers
  5. gabbles
  6. gabbling
  7. gabblings
  8. gabbro
  9. gabbrodiabase
  10. gabbrodiorite
  11. gabbrodioritic

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: gabbling (page history and authors); gabble (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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Cite this entry: “gabbling.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/gabbling. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.