burble

[bur-buhl]

verb (used without object)

burbled, burbling 

1. to make a bubbling sound; bubble.

2. to speak in an excited manner; babble.

noun

1. a bubbling or gentle flow.

2. an excited flow of speech.

3. Aeronautics.,  the breakdown of smooth airflow around a wing at a high angle of attack.

burble

/ ˈbɜːbəl /

verb

1. to make or utter with a bubbling sound; gurgle

2. (intr; often foll by away or on) to talk quickly and excitedly

3. (intr) (of the airflow around a body) to become turbulent

noun

1. a bubbling or gurgling sound

2. a flow of excited speech

3. turbulence in the airflow around a body

Other Word Forms

• burbler noun
• burbly adverb

Word History and Origins

Origin of burble¹

1275–1325; Middle English; perhaps variant of bubble

Word History and Origins

Origin of burble¹

C14: probably of imitative origin; compare Spanish borbollar to bubble, gush, Italian borbugliare

Example Sentences

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.

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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.

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DOWNIEVILLE, Calif. — Patrice Miller, 71, lived by herself in a small yellow house beneath towering mountain peaks on the edge of a burbling river in this Sierra County village.

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Kennedy's eagerness to slash access to health care burbled up repeatedly during the hearing, most comically when he offered computer software as an alternative to doctors.

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“There we go!” someone called out as he cleared the burbling waterway.

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Related Words

• babble