babbling
Americannoun
-
foolish or meaningless chatter; prattle.
the constant babbling of idle gossips.
-
the random production of meaningless vocal sounds characteristic of infants around the age of three months.
adjective
-
chattering or prattling aimlessly.
The babbling crowd quieted and funneled back into the auditorium at the end of intermission.
-
making a continuous murmuring sound.
a babbling brook.
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of babbling
First recorded in 1200–50; Middle English babelinde, bablyng; see origin at babble, -ing 1 (for the noun senses), -ing 2 (for the adjective)
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
The phrase echoed the one I had spoken years earlier to a babbling toddler in a Baltimore church.
From Slate ● Mar. 29, 2026
Haden Pentecost, 41, was working on a flight from California to London when he started to become agitated and was described as "sweating" and "babbling".
From BBC ● Aug. 22, 2025
That is not to say it would have been particularly shrewd for the president to have wandered into the Rose Garden and started babbling about what a “very fine person” Luigi Mangione is.
From Slate ● Apr. 1, 2025
The gang finds him holed up in a New Hampshire factory of a company Guillermo’s firm just finished gutting, babbling incoherently like Col.
From Salon ● Nov. 11, 2024
But Armpit knew he wasn’t good at making jokes, and if he didn’t write his speech down, he would just stand there, sweating and babbling nervously.
From "Small Steps" by Louis Sachar
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.
