BABBLING • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Babbling

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/bˈæbəlɪŋ/ /bˈæblɪŋ/ Listen

verb

Babble v. t.

To utter in an indistinct or incoherent way; to repeat, as words, in a childish way without understanding. "These (words) he used to babble in all companies."

To disclose by too free talk, as a secret.

Babble v. i. (past & past part. babbled; pres. part. babbling)

To utter words indistinctly or unintelligibly; to utter inarticulate sounds; as a child babbles.

To talk incoherently; to utter unmeaning words.

To talk much; to chatter; to prate.

To make a continuous murmuring noise, as shallow water running over stones. "In every babbling brook he finds a friend." Note: Hounds are said to babble, or to be babbling, when they are too noisy after having found a good scent.

Synonyms: To prate; prattle; chatter; gossip.

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Etymology of 'Babbling'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Babbling" Quotes from Famous Books

... us never found very full vent at Belfontaine, and that, I think, was due very largely to the quiet and kindly, but somewhat rigid, Quakerism of my grandfather. We felt and knew without babbling into words. ...

— Carette of Sark • John Oxenham

... no account of any great poet, whose genius was of that dreamy cartilaginous kind, which hath its being in haze, and draws its nourishment from lights and shadows; which ponders over the mysteries of trees, and interprets the oracles of babbling waters. They have all been men—worldly men, different only from others in reasoning more by feeling than induction. Directed by impulse, in a greater degree than other men, poets are apt to be betrayed into actions which make them singular, ...

— The Life of Lord Byron • John Galt

... had a great distaste for the quiet of country life, "there would be no need for them to be dragging themselves off into the country." In her heart Marya Dmitrievna more than once regretted her pretty Pokrovskoe, with its babbling brook, its wide meadows, and green copses; but she never opposed her husband in anything and had the greatest veneration for his wisdom and knowledge of the world. When after fifteen years of married life he died leaving her with a son and two daughters, Marya ...

— A House of Gentlefolk • Ivan Turgenev

... spin out a long record for this last evening at home. O, budding vines and flowers! who will train your rich luxuriance into fairy, fantastic clusterings, or watch your opening petals in the summer which is to come? Who listen to the babbling fountains, or roam the cedar-walks that border the dancing river? And O, the far, far-stretching forest, from whose mysterious depths, in a bright year passed away, I saw him emerge, and hurried down the gravelled path to meet him at ...

— Eventide - A Series of Tales and Poems • Effie Afton

... with music Sung by the babbling brook. Sweet lullabies with chorus clear In which the ...

— The Sorcery Club • Elliott O'Donnell

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