jabber
Pronunciation
This text is extracted from the Wiktionary and it is available under the CC BY-SA 3.0 license | Terms and conditions | Privacy policy 0.003
Pronunciation
- IPA: /ˈdʒæbə(ɹ)/
jabber (jabbers, present participle jabbering; past and past participle jabbered)
- (intransitive) To talk rapidly, indistinctly, or unintelligibly; to utter gibberish or nonsense.
- 1829, James Hogg, The Shepherd’s Calendar, New York: A.T. Goodrich, Volume I, Chapter 9, “Mary Burnet,” p. 184,
- Allanson made some sound in his throat, as if attempting to speak, but his tongue refused its office, and he only jabbered.
- 1851, Herman Melville, Moby-Dick, Chapter 19,
- “What are you jabbering about, shipmate?” said I.
- 1829, James Hogg, The Shepherd’s Calendar, New York: A.T. Goodrich, Volume I, Chapter 9, “Mary Burnet,” p. 184,
- (transitive) To utter rapidly or indistinctly; to gabble.
- 1939, H. G. Wells, The Holy Terror, Book One, Chapter 1, Section 2,
- 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,
- French: jacasser
- Italian: farfugliare
- Spanish: farfullar
jabber (uncountable)
- Rapid or incoherent talk, with indistinct utterance; gibberish.
- 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,
- 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.
- 1918, Carl Sandburg, “Jabberers” in Cornhuskers, New York: Henry Holt & Co., p. 68,
- 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.
- 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,
- Spanish: farfulla, galimatías
jabber (plural jabbers)
- One who or that which jabs.
- A kind of hand-operated corn planter.
- 1999, Nicholas P. Hardeman, Across the Bloody Chasm
- 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
This text is extracted from the Wiktionary and it is available under the CC BY-SA 3.0 license | Terms and conditions | Privacy policy 0.003