Word.ws English Dictionary

gurgle

UK/ˈɡɜː.ɡl̩/US/ˈɡɝ.ɡl̩/

gurgle verb: to flow with a bubbling sound.

Verb

gurgle (third-person singular simple present gurgles, present participle gurgling, simple past and past participle gurgled)

  1. To flow with a bubbling sound.
    • The bath water gurgled down the drain.
    • Pure gurgling rills the lonely deſart trace, / And vvaſte their muſick on the ſavage race.1727, [Edward Young], “Satire V. On Women.”, in Love of Fame, the Universal Passion. In Seven Characteristical Satires, 4th edition, London: […] J[acob] and R[ichard] Tonson […], published 1741...
  2. To make such a sound.
    • The baby gurgled with delight.
    Synonyms:
    guttle

Noun

gurgle (plural gurgles)

  1. A gurgling sound.
    • Then the conversation broke off, and there was little more talking, only a noise of men going backwards and forwards, and of putting down of kegs and the hollow gurgle of good liquor being poured from breakers into the casks.[1898], J[ohn] Meade Falkner, Moonfleet, London; Toronto, Ont.: Jonathan Cape, published 1934, →OCLC

gurgle meaning in Tamil, Malayalam, Kannada and Arabic

gurgle in Tamil

நீர்ப்பாய்வொலி, நீர் பாயுமொலி, களகள

gurgle in Malayalam

കുടുകുടുശബ്ദം, ഗളഗളശബ്ദം, ഗദ്ഗദ നാദം

gurgle in Kannada

ಜುಳುಜುಳು ಹರಿ, ಗಂಟಲು ಮುಕ್ಕುಳಿಸು, ಗುಳುಗುಳು ಶಬ್ದ ಮಾಡು, ಗುಳುಗುಳಿಸು, ಜುಳುಜುಳಿಸು, ಸಂತಸದಿಂದ ಗಂಟಲಲ್ಲಿ ಗುಳುಗುಳಿಸು

gurgle in Arabic

to flow with a bubbling sound
غَرْغَرَ ḡarḡara, بَقْبَقَ baqbaqa
More languagesFewer languages
gurgle in Persian
قُلقُل

Examples of gurgle in a sentence

  • A baby gurgled, a photographer dropped her lens cap, and the strains of the U.S.
  • It didn't have words, but it had emitted a wordsome gurgle.
  • Martyn muttered, his stomach gurgling at the reminder of his last meal.

All 30 example sentences with gurgle

Synonyms of gurgle

Forms of gurgle

Verb
third-person singular presentgurgles
present participlegurgling
past participlegurgled
pastgurgled
Noun
pluralgurgles

Past tense of gurgle: gurgled

Origin of gurgle

Back formation from Middle English gurguling (“a rumbling in the belly”). Akin to Middle Dutch gorgelen (“to gurgle”), Middle Low German gorgelen (“to gurgle”), German gurgeln (“to gargle”), and perhaps to Latin gurguliō (“throat”).

Words formed from gurgle

Words that rhyme with gurgle

Questions about gurgle

What does gurgle mean?
Gurgle means to flow with a bubbling sound.
What is gurgle in Tamil?
Gurgle in Tamil is நீர்ப்பாய்வொலி, நீர் பாயுமொலி, களகள. See Gurgle meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is gurgle?
Gurgle can be a verb or a noun.
How do you pronounce gurgle?
Gurgle is pronounced /ˈɡɜː.ɡl̩/ (UK).
What is the past tense of gurgle?
The past tense of gurgle is gurgled.

Words near gurgle in the dictionary

  1. gurgitating
  2. gurgitation
  3. gurgitations
  4. gurgitator
  5. gurgitators
  6. gurgle
  7. gurgled
  8. gurgler
  9. gurglers
  10. gurgles
  11. gurglesome

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: gurgle (page history and authors); gurgle (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); gurgle (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); gurgle (Kannada Wiktionary) (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:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-au-gurgle.ogg.

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