Definition

1. Verb:

   • To speak rapidly, unclearly, and often about trivial matters, making the words difficult to understand.
   • To utter rapid, confused, or meaningless sounds.

2. Noun:

   • Rapid, confused, and often unintelligible speech.
   • A rapid succession of meaningless sounds.

Examples

• Verb:
  • She would gabble nervously whenever she was asked a difficult question.
  • The tourists gabbled excitedly in a language I couldn't understand.
• Noun:
  • His apology was just an incoherent gabble.
  • All I could hear from the crowded room was a gabble of voices.

Advanced Usage

• "to gabble on/away": To talk continuously and rapidly in a foolish or tedious way.
  • He just gabbled on about his new car for an hour.
• Used figuratively to describe rapid, indistinct non-human sounds.
  • The geese gabbled noisily by the pond.

Variants and Related Words

• Gab (n/v, informal): Idle talk; to talk idly or excessively.
• Gibberish (n): Unintelligible or meaningless speech or writing; nonsense.

Synonyms

• Verb: Jabber, prattle, chatter, babble, blather.
• Noun: Jabber, prattle, chatter, babble, gibberish.

Related Phrasal Verbs

• Gabble out: To say something very quickly and unclearly.
  • He gabbled out an excuse and ran from the room.

Related Idioms

• Talk nineteen to the dozen: To talk very quickly without stopping. (Similar in meaning to 'gabble').
  • Whenever she's excited, she talks nineteen to the dozen.

Noun

1. rapid and indistinct speech

Verb

1. speak (about unimportant matters) rapidly and incessantly