burble
Americanverb (used without object)
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burbles,
present (3rd person singular)
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burbled,
past participle, past
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burbling
present participle
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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
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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burblesimple
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burblessimple
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have burbledperfect
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has burbledperfect
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am burblingprogressive
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are burblingprogressive
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is burblingprogressive
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have been burblingperfect progressive
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has been burblingperfect progressive
Past
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burbledsimple
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had burbledperfect
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was burblingprogressive
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were burblingprogressive
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had been burblingperfect progressive
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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1-2-3 Scream!
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The Woman Warrior
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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:
Even when he was trying to sound upbeat, the river of resentment would burble up in his mannerisms and his peevish voice.
From Salon ● Jan. 23, 2024
“I thought someone else would answer the call,” Ms. Prohaska, 51, said in an interview in her house on City Island in the Bronx, over the burble of hundreds of gallons of aquarium water.
From New York Times ● Mar. 17, 2023
Much of the stream called Little Brook flows below the pavement in Seattle’s Lake City neighborhood, emerging for just a moment to burble through a small park shadowed by apartment buildings.
From Seattle Times ● Sep. 19, 2022
First one manatee surfaces, making that now-familiar burble as it takes a deep breath.
From Washington Post ● Mar. 25, 2022
I heard clanging metal drums and the burble of a ram’s horn.
From "The Many Assassinations of Samir, the Seller of Dreams" by Daniel Nayeri
Birds sing and the Lukaya River burbles along the valley floor.
From Barron's ● Nov. 26, 2025
One line of evidence came from isotope measurements of helium that burbles up in Tibetan springs.
From Science Magazine ● Jan. 9, 2024
The creek, a tributary to the wild Chinook-bearing Chehalis River, burbles beneath the ridge.
From Seattle Times ● Feb. 23, 2023
The queen burbles, she merrily slings lingo such as “Tinkety-tonk, old fruit,” she slurps gin at untoward hours and underneath it all, as one character observes, she’s as tough as an old boot.
From Washington Post ● Aug. 25, 2020
I don’t know if anything I said made sense, but somewhere between the gray sidewalk and the gray sky, a laugh burbles out of me.
From "The Benefits of Being an Octopus" by Ann Braden
A stone fountain burbled softly in his Japanese-inspired peace garden.
From BBC ● Jan. 10, 2026
Earlier this week, as the Beltway burbled with speculation about California’s Senate seat, the liberal commentator Jonathan Capehart shared his thoughts on Twitter.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 14, 2023
Alabama and Texas A&M illustrated one of the byproducts that have burbled up out of college football’s ever-shifting ecosystem.
From Washington Post ● Oct. 9, 2022
It's like the ugly reality that was being daintily concealed in the '80s has burbled up and consumed us all.
From Salon ● Mar. 23, 2019
Willy just burbled if the questions were about butterflies or boats, but watch out if the question was about baseball.
From "Out of My Mind" by Sharon M. Draper
Ditto a reversal by NASA, whose then-leader enjoyed burbling in public about aliens but was soon assembling an expert panel to debunk such careless if crowd-pleasing talk.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 26, 2026
Miller, the Mono Lake Committee’s Eastern Sierra policy director, and Geoff McQuilkin, its executive director, led the way to a burbling spring rimmed by innumerable hoof prints.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 7, 2025
Meghan is a wealthy American woman living a royal dream, if you ignore the geyser of British tabloid bile constantly burbling in the background of her life.
From Salon ● Aug. 27, 2025
Traditionally a celebration dish in Korea, this kalbijjim feels like a labor of love burbling on your table; it’s so good that I can see why my Korean friends say soup season is year-round.
From Seattle Times ● Apr. 24, 2024
He rested against his tree and gazed at the river just being itself, burbling along.
From "Abel's Island" by William Steig
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.
