Word.ws English Dictionary

rabble

/ˈɹæbəl/

rabble verb: to speak in a confused manner; talk incoherently; utter nonsense.

Verb (1)

rabble (third-person singular simple present rabbles, present participle rabbling, simple past and past participle rabbled)

  1. (intransitive) To speak in a confused manner; talk incoherently; utter nonsense
  2. (transitive) To speak confusedly or incoherently; gabble or chatter out

Noun (1)

rabble (plural rabbles)

  1. (obsolete) A bewildered or meaningless string of words.
  2. (obsolete) A pack of animals; or any confused collection of things.
  3. A mob; a disorderly crowd.
    Synonyms:
    rout
  4. (derogatory) The mass of common people; the lowest class of populace.
    • Such practices as Theſe, too groſs to lye / Long unobſerv'd by each diſcerning Eye, / The more judicious Iſraelites Unſpell'd, / Though ſtill the Charm the giddy Rabble held, […]1682, [Nahum Tate; John Dryden], The Second Part of Absalom and Achitophel. A Poem, London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC, page 5

Noun (2)

rabble (plural rabbles)

  1. An iron bar used in puddling.

Verb (2)

rabble (third-person singular simple present rabbles, present participle rabbling, simple past and past participle rabbled)

  1. (transitive) To stir with a rabble.

rabble meaning in Urdu, Bengali, Malayalam and Kannada

rabble in Urdu

انبوہ, بےقابو ہجوم, جمگھٹ

rabble in Bengali

উচ্ছৃঙ্খল জনতা, ভিড়

rabble in Malayalam

പ്രാകൃതജനം, സമൂഹത്തിന്റെ അടിത്തട്ടിലുള്ളവർ

rabble in Kannada

ದೊಂಬಿ, ಜನಸಮೂಹ, ಜನಜಂಗುಳಿ, ಕೀಳುಮಂದಿ, ಕ್ಷುದ್ರಸಮೂಹ, ಬಾಗುತುದಿಯ ಕಬ್ಬಿಣದ ಸರಳು

Synonyms of rabble

20 more synonymsFewer synonyms

All synonyms of rabble

Forms of rabble

Verb
third-person singular presentrabbles
present participlerabbling
past participlerabbled
pastrabbled
alternative formravel
Noun
pluralrabbles

Origin of rabble

First attested since 1300s, from Middle English rablen (“to ramble; rave; speak in a confused manner”), cognate with Middle Dutch rabbelen (“to talk; chatter; trifle”), Low German rabbeln, robbeln (“to chatter; prattle”).

From Middle English rabel, probably from the verb (see above).

From Old French roable (modern French râble), from Latin rutabulum (“a poker”).

Words formed from rabble

Phrases with rabble

Words that rhyme with rabble

Questions about rabble

What does rabble mean?
Rabble means to speak in a confused manner; talk incoherently; utter nonsense.
What is rabble in Urdu?
Rabble in Urdu is انبوہ, بےقابو ہجوم, جمگھٹ. See Rabble meaning in Urdu.
What part of speech is rabble?
Rabble can be a verb or a noun.
How do you pronounce rabble?
Rabble is pronounced /ˈɹæbəl/.
What is the past tense of rabble?
The past tense of rabble is rabbled.

Words near rabble in the dictionary

  1. Rabbitts
  2. rabbitweed
  3. rabbitwise
  4. rabbitwood
  5. rabbity
  6. rabble
  7. rabble rouser
  8. rabble rousers
  9. rabble-rouse
  10. rabble-roused
  11. rabble-rouser

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: rabble (page history and authors); rabble (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); rabble (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); rabble (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); rabble (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: en-us-rabble.ogg.

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