Definition of "babble"

babble

/ˈbæb.l̩/

verb
third-person singular simple present babbles, present participle babbling, simple past and past participle babbled
1. (intransitive) To utter words indistinctly or unintelligibly; to utter inarticulate sounds
2. (intransitive) To talk incoherently; to utter meaningless words.
3. (intransitive) To talk too much; to chatter; to prattle.
  Quotations
  Radical rather than rhetorical, babble like an oracle
  2022, Slipknot, The Dying Song (Time To Sing)
4. (intransitive) To make a continuous murmuring noise, like shallow water running over stones.
  Quotations
  In every babbling brook he finds a friend.
  1815, William Wordsworth, “Extracts from Descriptive Sketches”, in Poems […], volumes (please specify |volume=I or II), London: […] Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, […]
5. (transitive) To utter in an indistinct or incoherent way; to repeat words or sounds in a childish way without understanding.
  Quotations
  All this vvhile John had conn'd over ſuch a Catalogue of hard VVords, as vvere enough to conjure up the Devil; theſe he uſed to babble indifferently in all Companies, eſpecially at Coffee-houſes; ſo that his Neighbour Tradeſmen began to ſhun his Company as a Man that vvas crack'd.
  1733, Humphry Polesworth [pseudonym; John Arbuthnot], Alexander Pope, compiler, “Law is a Bottomless Pit. Or, The History of John Bull. […]. [The First Part.] Chapter VII. How John Bull was so Mightily Pleas’d with His Success, that He was Going to Leave Off His Trade, and Turn Lawyer.”, in Miscellanies, 2nd edition, volume II, London: […] Benjamin Motte, […], page 23
6. (transitive) To reveal; to give away (a secret).
noun
usually uncountable, plural babbles
1. Idle talk; senseless prattle
  Quotations
  This is mere moral babble.
  1634 October 9 (first performance), [John Milton], edited by H[enry] Lawes, A Maske Presented at Ludlow Castle, 1634: […], London: […] [Augustine Matthews] for Hvmphrey Robinson, […], published 1637; reprinted as Comus: […] (Dodd, Mead & Company’s Facsimile Reprints of Rare Books; Literature Series; no. I), New York, N.Y.: Dodd, Mead & Company, 1903, line 823
2. Inarticulate speech; constant or confused murmur.
  Quotations
  [M]an has an instinctive tendency to speak, as we see in the babble of our young children; whilst no child has an instinctive tendency to brew, bake, or write.
  1871, Charles Darwin, “Comparison of the Mental Powers of Man and the Lower Animals”, in The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex. […], volume I, London: John Murray, […], Part I (On the Descent of Man), page 55
3. A sound like that of water gently flowing around obstructions.
  Quotations
  [T]he babble of the stream / Fell, and without the steady glare / Shrank the sick olive sere and small.
  1832 December (indicated as 1833), Alfred Tennyson, “Mariana in the South”, in Poems, London: Edward Moxon, […], page 23

Definition of "babble"

babble

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noun

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