gobble
/'gɔbl/
Học thuậtThân thiện
Definition
Verb (Transitive/Intransitive):
- To eat something quickly and greedily: To consume food in a hurried, noisy, and often careless manner.
- To make the characteristic sound of a male turkey: To produce a rapid, guttural, bubbling call.
Noun (Countable):
- The characteristic sound made by a male turkey: A rapid series of guttural sounds.
Usage and Examples
- Verb (Eating):
- He gobbled his lunch in five minutes because he was late.
- The children gobbled up all the cookies.
- Verb (Sound):
- We could hear the turkeys gobbling in the farmyard.
- Noun (Sound):
- The loud gobble of the turkey echoed through the woods.
Advanced Usage and Notes
- Figurative Use: "Gobble" can be used figuratively to describe consuming or using something quickly and completely, often resources.
- The new software update gobbles up a lot of memory.
- The large corporation gobbled up several smaller competitors.
- The phrase "gobble down" or "gobble up" is very common when referring to eating. "Up" often emphasizes completeness.
Variants and Related Words
- Gobbler (noun): A male turkey; informally, a person who eats greedily.
- Gobbling (noun/adj): The act or sound of eating greedily or of a turkey's call.
Synonyms
- For eating: Devour, wolf (down), bolt, gorge, guzzle.
- For the sound: There is no direct common synonym; "turkey call" is a descriptive phrase.
Related Phrasal Verbs
- Gobble down: To eat something very quickly.
- She gobbled down her breakfast and ran out the door.
- Gobble up:
- To eat all of something quickly.
- The kids gobbled up the popcorn.
- To use or absorb something in large amounts.
- The long commute gobbles up three hours of my day.
- To acquire or take over something completely.
- The giant tech company gobbled up the startup.
Related Idioms
- While there are no major idioms with "gobble" as the key word, the verb is frequently used in the patterns described above (gobble up/down).
Noun
- the characteristic sound made by a turkey cock
Verb
- make a gurgling sound, characteristic of turkeys
- eat hastily without proper chewing
- Don't bolt your food!