gobble

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See also: Gobble

English[edit]

Pronunciation[edit]

Etymology 1[edit]

From Middle English gobben (“to drink or swallow greedily”), of uncertain origin +‎ -le (frequentative suffix). Middle English gobben is perhaps an alteration of Middle English globben (“to gulp down”), related to English gulpen (“to gulp”). However, compare also French gober.

Verb[edit]

gobble (third-person singular simple present gobbles, present participle gobbling, simple past and past participle gobbled)

  1. To eat hastily or greedily; to scoff or scarf (often used with up)
    He gobbled four hot dogs in three minutes.
Synonyms[edit]
Derived terms[edit]
Translations[edit]

Noun[edit]

gobble (plural gobbles)

  1. (Scotland, slang, vulgar) Fellatio; a blowjob.
    • 2009, Mandasue Heller, The Charmer:
      Nowadays, he was lucky if his mam's auld drinking cronies gave him a gobble.
  2. (rare) An act of eating hastily or greedily.
    • 1983, Liam O'Flaherty, The Assassin, page 53:
      […] wrinkling his forehead and moving his jaws and throat violently, as if he expected to choke with each gobble.
  3. (golf) A rapid straight putt so strongly played that, if the ball had not gone into the hole, it would have gone a long way past.
Derived terms[edit]

Etymology 2[edit]

Onomatopoetic of the sound of a turkey.

This entry needs a sound clip exemplifying the definition.

Verb[edit]

gobble (third-person singular simple present gobbles, present participle gobbling, simple past and past participle gobbled)

  1. (transitive, intransitive) Of a turkey, to make its characteristic vocalisation; also, used of certain other birds.
    • 1886, Peter Christen Asbjørnsen, translated by H.L. Brækstad, Folk and Fairy Tales, page 72:
      Not before this performance is over does he [a male capercaillie] settle down to play, and commence gobbling and snapping his beak.
  2. (transitive, intransitive) To make the sound of a turkey.
    • 1774, Oliver Goldsmith, History of the Earth and Animated Nature:
      He […] gobbles out a note of self-approbation.
Translations[edit]

Noun[edit]

gobble (plural gobbles)

  2. The sound of a turkey; or, a similar vocalisation of another bird.
    • 1886, Peter Christen Asbjørnsen, translated by H.L. Brækstad, Folk and Fairy Tales, page 86:
      But while the hen continued her cackle he finished his first play, and had commenced the gobble of his second, when a twig cracked beneath my feet.
Translations[edit]

See also[edit]

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