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
- burbler noun
- burbly adverb
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.
And notwithstanding the constant shrieks about America’s nativism and xenophobia, the melting pot continues to burble along.
From Los Angeles Times • Jun. 11, 2024
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
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
Larry Gaines removed his gray sweatshirt, rolled up his sleeve and whispered above the otherworldly burble of chiming slot machines that drifted in from the casino floor.
From Washington Post • Feb. 19, 2022
The sight was too terrible and beautiful for a cricket who up to now had measured high things by the height of his willow tree and sounds by the burble of a running brook.
From "The Cricket in Times Square" by George Selden
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.
