jabber
/ˈd͡ʒæbə(ɹ)/
jabber verb: to talk rapidly, indistinctly, or unintelligibly; to utter gibberish or nonsense.
Verb
jabber (third-person singular simple present jabbers, present participle jabbering, simple past and past participle jabbered)
- To talk rapidly, indistinctly, or unintelligibly; to utter gibberish or nonsense.
- Allanson made some sound in his throat, as if attempting to speak, but his tongue refused its office, and he only jabbered.1829, James Hogg, The Shepherd’s Calendar, New York: A.T. Goodrich, Volume I, Chapter 9, “Mary Burnet,” p. 184
- “What are you jabbering about, shipmate?” said I.1851 November 14, Herman Melville, “Chapter 19”, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC
- To utter rapidly or indistinctly; to gabble.
- She had Lord James' collar in one big fist and she pounded the table with the other and talked a blue streak. Nobody could make out plain what she said, for she was mainly jabbering Swede lingo, but there was English enough, of a kind, to give us some idee.1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter XII, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y.; London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC
- He wept very little, but when he wept he howled aloud, and jabbered wild abuse, threats and recriminations through the wet torrent of his howling.1939, H. G. Wells, The Holy Terror, Book One, Chapter 1, Section 2
Noun (1)
jabber (uncountable)
- Rapid or incoherent talk, with indistinct utterance; gibberish.
- And, is there less Probability in my Account of the Houyhnhnms or Yahoos, when it is manifest as to the latter, there are so many Thousands even in this City, who only differ from their Brother Brutes in Houyhnhnmland, because they use a Sort of a Jabber, and do not go naked.1735, Jonathan Swift, Gulliver’s Travels, in The Works of Jonathan Swift, edited by George Faulkner, Dublin, 1735, Volume 3, A Letter from Capt. Gulliver to his Cousin Sympson, pp. v-vi
- Two tongues from the depths,
Alike only as a yellow cat and a green parrot are alike,
Fling their staccato tantalizations
Into a wildcat jabber
Over a gossamer web of unanswerables.1918, Carl Sandburg, “Jabberers”, in Cornhuskers, New York: Henry Holt & Co, page 68
Noun (2)
jabber (plural jabbers)
- One who or that which jabs.
- Have the boys box, one jabbing and the other practicing the methods of boxing a jabber.1939, Edwin L. Haislet, Boxing in Education, page 160
- One who administers a hypodermic injection.
- Like Claire, these “secret jabbers” are keeping it private even from their closest family and friends.2025 May 11, Imogen West-Knights, “‘I lost so much weight, my husband thought I was terminally ill’: why do people lie about taking Ozempic?”, in The Guardian, →ISSN
- A kind of hand-operated corn planter.
- The jabber was the most popular hand-operated corn planter ever devised. […] Inset shows jaws closed for jabbing (left) and open for depositing kernels (right).1999, Nicholas P. Hardeman, Across the Bloody Chasm
jabber meaning in Tamil, Urdu, Bengali and Malayalam
jabber in Tamil
- பிதற்றல், உளறல், பிதற்று, உளறு, எடுப்புக் குரலிற் பேசு, பொருள் தெஷீவின்ஜீச் சொற்களை உச்சரி
jabber in Urdu
- بڑبڑانا
jabber in Bengali
- উত্তেজিতভাবে কথা বলা, হড়বড় করা, হড়বড়ানো, হড়বড়ানি, বাচাল
jabber in Malayalam
- ജല്പിക്കുക, അലയ്ക്കുക, പുലമ്പുക
More languagesFewer languages
- jabber in Kannada
- ಬಡಬಡಿಕೆ, ಗೊಜಗುಟ್ಟುವುದು, ಅರ್ಥವಾಗದ ಮಾತು, ಹುರುಳಿಲ್ಲದ ಮಾತು
Examples of jabber in a sentence
- He jabbered incessantly and annoyed everyone.
- Regina quickly set Serena onto the floor and spoke baby jabber to the cherished purse puppy.
- To be as far away as possible from the jabbering women.
Forms of jabber
| Verb | |
|---|---|
| third-person singular present | jabbers |
| present participle | jabbering |
| past participle | jabbered |
| past | jabbered |
| Noun | |
| plural | jabbers |
Origin of jabber
From Middle English jaberen, javeren, chaveren (“to chatter, babble”), dissimilated forms of jablen, chavelen (“to jabber”), from Middle English chavel ("jaw"; > modern English jowl). Equivalent to jowl + -er (iterative suffix).
From jab + -er.
Words formed from jabber
Phrases with jabber
Words that rhyme with jabber
Questions about jabber
- What does jabber mean?
- Jabber means to talk rapidly, indistinctly, or unintelligibly; to utter gibberish or nonsense.
- What is jabber in Tamil?
- Jabber in Tamil is பிதற்றல், உளறல், பிதற்று. See Jabber meaning in Tamil.
- What part of speech is jabber?
- Jabber can be a verb or a noun.
- How do you pronounce jabber?
- Jabber is pronounced /ˈd͡ʒæbə(ɹ)/.
- What is the past tense of jabber?
- The past tense of jabber is jabbered.
Words near jabber in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: jabber (page history and authors); jabber (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); jabber (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); jabber (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); jabber (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); jabber (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.
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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-jabber.wav.
Cite this entry: “jabber.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/jabber. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.