blab
Americanverb (used with object)
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blabs,
present (3rd person singular)
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blabbed,
past participle, past
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blabbing
present participle
verb (used without object)
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blabs,
present (3rd person singular)
-
blabbed,
past participle, past
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blabbing
present participle
noun
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idle, indiscreet chattering.
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a person who blabs; blabbermouth.
verb
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to divulge (secrets) indiscreetly
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(intr) to chatter thoughtlessly; prattle
noun
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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blabsimple
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blabssimple
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have blabbedperfect
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has blabbedperfect
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am blabbingprogressive
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are blabbingprogressive
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is blabbingprogressive
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have been blabbingperfect progressive
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has been blabbingperfect progressive
Past
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blabbedsimple
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had blabbedperfect
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was blabbingprogressive
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were blabbingprogressive
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had been blabbingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of blab
1325–75; Middle English blabbe (noun), perhaps back formation from blaberen to blabber; cognate with Old Norse blabbra, German plappern
Explanation
To blab is to gossip about or reveal a secret you promised to keep. You might accidentally blab to your dad about your brother getting in trouble at school. A reporter could take you by surprise and get you to blab about your movie star neighbor, and it might be hard for a little kid not to blab about the birthday gift he's giving his sister. Another way to blab is simply to talk a lot: "I sat there and listened to him blab about all the famous people he knows." Blab comes from the Middle English blabbe, "one who does not control his tongue."
Vocabulary lists containing blab
When I Was the Greatest
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The Egypt Game
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See You in the Cosmos
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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.
See Examples For:
"I had a wonderful time and we all agreed by saying yes to going, we weren't going to blab about it."
From BBC ● Sep. 9, 2026
The office biohacker who won’t shut up about his sleep score may also blab about nitrogen levels in his soil.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 9, 2026
I was probably about 2 or 3 then, just trying to blab, because the early nurses I had when I was a kid had said that I had delayed speech or something called “selective mutism.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 19, 2025
But if you descend into this tidy Arlington basement for a zigzag blab about the ideas that animate the band’s music, the paradoxes start piling up fast.
From Washington Post ● Nov. 30, 2022
“I know her. She’s just going to run and blab to the first adult she sees, because she figures she knows what’s best for me. But she doesn’t know.”
From "King and the Dragonflies" by Kacen Callender
He blabs so much about the trial at his daily press conferences that the judge hands down a gag order.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 23, 2026
Think of the worst person you know: the kind who blabs people’s secrets, mocks their diction, dismisses their pain while making festivals of her own.
From New York Times ● Dec. 18, 2023
There’s nothing worse than when our tech blabs on us.
From Fox News ● Oct. 9, 2021
Ogden, impersonating both pod host and guest, blabs inanely about the importance of “conversation” and “dialogue.”
From Slate ● Mar. 12, 2021
She blabs whatever you tell her to her mother.
From "The Diary of a Young Girl" by Anne Frank
They were technically creative but they seemed young, and they had associates who blabbed about their exploits.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 3, 2026
When Lindell blabbed out one anecdote about a “friend,” he wasn’t prepared for De Brasco to ask for that friend’s last name, which Lindell refused to provide.
From Salon ● Aug. 24, 2024
Just before the arraignment itself, as network talking heads blabbed over the static hallway shot, Trump suddenly emerged from Bragg’s office.
From Washington Post ● Apr. 4, 2023
She’s probably making things more difficult by being so loose-lipped about your husband’s potential predilection, something you have every right to feel sensitive about and not want blabbed.
From Slate ● May 13, 2019
She didn’t have to tell me about it, if she didn’t want to start a big fuss—and of course she could have blabbed to Zara behind my back.
From "Maybe He Just Likes You" by Barbara Dee
Babbling and blabbing all along with only about 1/3 of his content having any meaning in reality.
From Salon ● Sep. 22, 2023
You’re blabbing about your age group, of which you’re a high-ranking member.
From New York Times ● Oct. 13, 2022
“I know I’m not speechless because I’m blabbing on, but I don’t know what to say,” the 30-year-old Watson said on No. 1 Court.
From Seattle Times ● Jul. 1, 2022
But anyone who knows what the heck you’re blabbing about has already moved on and gotten over it.
From Washington Post ● Aug. 7, 2019
From the moment I met her in the hallway she'd been blabbing, so excited about the hustle and bustle she'd experienced earlier in the day.
From "Patina" by Jason Reynolds
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.
