burble
Americanverb (used without object)
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to make a bubbling sound; bubble.
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to speak in an excited manner; babble.
noun
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a bubbling or gentle flow.
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an excited flow of speech.
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Aeronautics. the breakdown of smooth airflow around a wing at a high angle of attack.
verb
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to make or utter with a bubbling sound; gurgle
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(intr; often foll by away or on) to talk quickly and excitedly
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(intr) (of the airflow around a body) to become turbulent
noun
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a bubbling or gurgling sound
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a flow of excited speech
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turbulence in the airflow around a body
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Conjugated Forms
Present
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has burbledperfect 3rd person singular
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have burbledperfect
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are burblingprogressive
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am burblingprogressive 1st person singular
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burblingparticiple
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have been burblingperfect progressive
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has been burblingperfect progressive 3rd person singular
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is burblingprogressive 3rd person singular
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burblessingular 3rd person
Past
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had burbledperfect
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burbledsimple
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had been burblingperfect progressive
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burbledparticiple
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were burblingprogressive plural
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was burblingprogressive singular
Future
Etymology
Origin of burble
1275–1325; Middle English; perhaps variant of bubble
Explanation
To burble is to move with a rippling flow, the way water bubbles down the side of a small garden waterfall. A stream burbles as it travels along its bed, bubbling over rocks and branches. The verb burble captures both the movement of the water and the sound it makes as it moves. You could also say that a brook or stream or river babbles or ripples or even trickles. The word burble was first used in the 1300's, and it probably comes from an imitation of the sound a rippling, bubbling brook makes.
Vocabulary lists containing burble
"Jabberwocky" by Lewis Carroll
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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.