v. i. [ imp. & p. p. Babbled 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. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. To talk incoherently; to utter unmeaning words. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. To talk much; to chatter; to prate. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. To make a continuous murmuring noise, as shallow water running over stones. [ 1913 Webster ]

In every babbling brook he finds a friend. Wordsworth. [ 1913 Webster ]

☞ Hounds are said to babble, or to be babbling, when they are too noisy after having found a good scent. [ 1913 Webster ]

Syn. -- To prate; prattle; chatter; gossip. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. 1. To utter in an indistinct or incoherent way; to repeat, as words, in a childish way without understanding. [ 1913 Webster ]

These [ words ] he used to babble in all companies. Arbuthnot. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. To disclose by too free talk, as a secret. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. 1. Idle talk; senseless prattle; gabble; twaddle. “This is mere moral babble.” Milton. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Inarticulate speech; constant or confused murmur. [ 1913 Webster ]

The babble of our young children. Darwin. [ 1913 Webster ]

The babble of the stream. Tennyson. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. Babble. Hawthorne. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. 1. An idle talker; an irrational prater; a teller of secrets. [ 1913 Webster ]

Great babblers, or talkers, are not fit for trust. L'Estrange. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. A hound too noisy on finding a good scent. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. (Zool.) A name given to any one of a family (Timalinæ) of thrushlike birds, having a chattering note. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. Babble. [ Obs. ] Sir T. More. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. [ imp. & p. p. Bedabbled p. pr. & vb. n. Bedabbling ] To dabble; to sprinkle or wet. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. To befoul with rain and mud; to drabble. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. To dribble upon. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. To scribble over. “Bescribbled with impertinences.” Milton. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ A reduplication of babble. ] Idle talk; babble. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. i. [ D. brabbelen to talk confusedly. √95. Cf. Blab, Babble. ] To clamor; to contest noisily. [ R. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

n. A broil; a noisy contest; a wrangle. [ 1913 Webster ]

This petty brabble will undo us all. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. A brabble. [ R. ] Holland. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. A clamorous, quarrelsome, noisy fellow; a wrangler. [ R ] Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ Cf. D. bobbel, Dan. boble, Sw. bubbla. Cf. Blob, n. ] 1. A thin film of liquid inflated with air or gas; as, a soap bubble; bubbles on the surface of a river. [ 1913 Webster ]

Beads of sweat have stood upon thy brow,
Like bubbles in a late disturbed stream. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. A small quantity of air or gas within a liquid body; as, bubbles rising in champagne or aërated waters. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. A globule of air, or globular vacuum, in a transparent solid; as, bubbles in window glass, or in a lens. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. A small, hollow, floating bead or globe, formerly used for testing the strength of spirits. [ 1913 Webster ]

5. The globule of air in the spirit tube of a level. [ 1913 Webster ]

6. Anything that wants firmness or solidity; that which is more specious than real; a false show; a cheat or fraud; a delusive scheme; an empty project; a dishonest speculation; as, the South Sea bubble. [ 1913 Webster ]

Then a soldier . . .
Seeking the bubble reputation
Even in the cannon's mouth. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

7. A person deceived by an empty project; a gull. [ Obs. ] “Ganny's a cheat, and I'm a bubble.” Prior. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. i. [ imp. & p. p. Bubbled p. pr. & vb. n. Bubbling ] [ Cf. D. bobbelen, Dan. boble. See Bubble, n. ] 1. To rise in bubbles, as liquids when boiling or agitated; to contain bubbles. [ 1913 Webster ]

The milk that bubbled in the pail. Tennyson. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. To run with a gurgling noise, as if forming bubbles; as, a bubbling stream. Pope. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. To sing with a gurgling or warbling sound. [ 1913 Webster ]

At mine ear
Bubbled the nightingale and heeded not. Tennyson. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. To cheat; to deceive. [ 1913 Webster ]

She has bubbled him out of his youth. Addison. [ 1913 Webster ]

The great Locke, who was seldom outwitted by false sounds, was nevertheless bubbled here. Sterne. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. 1. One who cheats. [ 1913 Webster ]

All the Jews, jobbers, bubblers, subscribers, projectors, etc. Pope. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. (Zool.) A fish of the Ohio river; -- so called from the noise it makes. [ 1913 Webster ]

(Zool.) A marine univalve shell of the genus Bulla and allied genera, belonging to the Tectibranchiata. [ 1913 Webster ]

adj. 1. giving off bubbles; -- of a liquid. [ Narrower terms: foaming, frothing; effervescent; boiling ] [ WordNet 1.5 ]

2. stimulatingly lively, witty, and entertaining; -- of people.
Syn. -- effervescent, scintillating, sparkling, sparkly, vivacious. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

fld>(Zool.) The male wild turkey, the gobbler; -- so called in allusion to its notes. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Abounding in bubbles; bubbling. Nash. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. One who works at cabbling. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. (Metal.) The process of breaking up the flat masses into which wrought iron is first hammered, in order that the pieces may be reheated and wrought into bar iron. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. A fishing boat. See Coble. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ From Cob a lump. See Cob, n., 9, and cf. Copple, Copplestone. ] 1. A cobblestone. “Their slings held cobbles round.” Fairfax. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. pl. Cob coal. See under Cob. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. [ imp. & p. p. Cobbled p. pr. & vb. n. Cobbling ] [ OF. cobler, copler, to join or knit together, couple, F. coupler, L. copulare to couple, join. Cf. Couple, n. & v. t. ] 1. To make or mend coarsely; to patch; to botch; as, to cobble shoes. Shak. “A cobbled saddle.” Thackeray. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. To make clumsily. “Cobbled rhymes.” Dryden. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. To pave with cobblestones. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. 1. A mender of shoes. Addison. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. A clumsy workman. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. A beverage. See Sherry cobbler, under Sherry. [ 1913 Webster ]

Cobbler fish (Zool.), a marine fish (Blepharis crinitus) of the Atlantic. The name alludes to its threadlike fin rays. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. A large pebble; a rounded stone not too large to be handled; a small boulder; -- used for paving streets and for other purposes. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ F. crible, LL. criblus sieve, fr. L. cribrum. ] 1. A coarse sieve or screen. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Coarse flour or meal. [ Obs. ] Johnson. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. [ imp. & p. p. Cribbled p. pr. & vb. n. Cribbling ] [ Cf. F. cribler. ] To cause to pass through a sieve or riddle; to sift. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Coarse; as, cribble bread. [ Obs. ] Huloet. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. [ imp. & p. p. Dabbled p. pr. & vb. n. Dabbling ] [ Freq. of dab: cf. OD. dabbelen. ] To wet by little dips or strokes; to spatter; to sprinkle; to moisten; to wet. “Bright hair dabbled in blood.” Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. i. 1. To play in water, as with the hands; to paddle or splash in mud or water. [ 1913 Webster ]

Where the duck dabbles 'mid the rustling sedge. Wordsworth. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. To work in slight or superficial manner; to do in a small way; to tamper; to meddle. “Dabbling here and there with the text.” Atterbury. [ 1913 Webster ]

During the first year at Dumfries, Burns for the first time began to dabble in politics. J. C. Shairp. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. 1. One who dabbles. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. One who dips slightly into anything; a superficial meddler. “our dabblers in politics.” Swift. [ 1913 Webster ]

adv. In a dabbling manner. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ See Dibble, v. i. ] A pointed implement used to make holes in the ground in which no set out plants or to plant seeds. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. i. [ imp. & p. p. Dibbled p. pr. & vb. n. Dibbling ] [ Freq. of Prov. E. dib, for dip to thrust in. See Dip. ] To dib or dip frequently, as in angling. Walton. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. 1. To plant with a dibble; to make holes in (soil) with a dibble, for planting. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. To make holes or indentations in, as if with a dibble. [ 1913 Webster ]

The clayey soil around it was dibbled thick at the time by the tiny hoofs of sheep. H. Miller. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. One who, or that which, dibbles, or makes holes in the ground for seed. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. [ imp. & p. p. Drabbled p. pr. & vb. n. Drabbling ] [ &unr_;&unr_;&unr_;.See Drab, Draff. ] To draggle; to wet and befoul by draggling; as, to drabble a gown or cloak. Halliwell. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. i. To fish with a long line and rod; as, to drabble for barbels. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. (Naut.) A piece of canvas fastened by lacing to the bonnet of a sail, to give it a greater depth, or more drop. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. A draggle-tail; a slattern. Halliwell. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. i. [ imp. & p. p. Dribbled p. pr. & vb. n. Dribbing ] [ Freq. of drib, which is a variant of drip. ] 1. To fall in drops or small drops, or in a quick succession of drops; as, water dribbles from the eaves. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. To slaver, as a child or an idiot; to drivel. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. To fall weakly and slowly. [ Obs. ] “The dribbling dart of love.” Shak. (Meas. for Meas. , i. 3, 2). [ Perhaps an error for dribbing. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

4. In basketball, football and similar games, to dribble{ 2 } the ball. [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]

5. To live or pass one's time in a trivial fashion. [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]

v. t. 1. To let fall in drops. [ 1913 Webster ]

Let the cook . . . dribble it all the way upstairs. Swift. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. In basketball and various other games, to propel (the ball) by successive slight hits or kicks so as to keep it always in control. [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]

n. 1. A drizzling shower; a falling or leaking in drops. [ Colloq. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

2. An act of dribbling{ 2 } a ball. [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]

n. One who dribbles.

{ } n. [ From Dribble. ] A small piece or part; a small sum; a small quantity of money in making up a sum; as, the money was paid in dribblets. [ 1913 Webster ]

When made up in dribblets, as they could, their best securities were at an interest of twelve per cent. Burke. [ 1913 Webster ]