Webster
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Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Babble

Bab′ble (băb′b'l), v. i. [imp. & p. p. Babbled (-b'ld); p. pr. & vb. n. Babbling.] [Cf.LG. babbeln, D. babbelen, G. bappeln, bappern, F. babiller, It. babbolare; prob. orig., to keep saying ba, imitative of a child learning to talk.] 1. To utter words indistinctly or unintelligibly; to utter inarticulate sounds; as, a child babbles.

2. To talk incoherently; to utter unmeaning words.

3. To talk much; to chatter; to prate.

4. To make a continuous murmuring noise, as shallow water running over stones.

In every babbling brook he finds a friend. Wordsworth.

☞ Hounds are said to babble, or to be babbling, when they are too noisy after having found a good scent.

Syn. — To prate; prattle; chatter; gossip.

Bab′ble, v. t. 1. 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. Arbuthnot.

2. To disclose by too free talk, as a secret.

Bab′ble, n. 1. Idle talk; senseless prattle; gabble; twaddle. "This is mere moral babble." Milton.

2. Inarticulate speech; constant or confused murmur.

The babble of our young children. Darwin.

The babble of the stream. Tennyson.

Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Noah Porter, editor (Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913). Public domain. Text as transcribed by MICRA, Inc., from Project Gutenberg. Changed for Deep Dive Bible: Greek, which our source spelled in Latin letters, set in Greek letters; entries of one spelling merged into one article; Greek words our source left out (shown as “?”), read from the 1898 printing, from the same plates (the Library of Congress’s copy), where the place could be found with certainty. Of the others, 1,362 (a word or a single letter each) were inferred by AI from the context by the dictionary’s own rules and are marked with a wavy underline (tap or point at one to see the note); the rest, which could not be inferred with confidence, are left as “?”.