flibbertigibbet
Americannoun
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a chattering or flighty, light-headed person.
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Archaic. a gossip.
noun
Etymology
Origin of flibbertigibbet
1425–75; late Middle English flepergebet, flipergebet; reduplicative compound of obscure origin
Explanation
A flibbertigibbet is a very silly chatterbox. If your teacher calls you a flibbertigibbet, she clearly doesn't think you're a serious or scholarly person. The noun flibbertigibbet is a colorful — if slightly old fashioned — word for a ridiculous busybody, someone who talks and gossips a lot but doesn't have much of any substance to say. It's most often used to talk about a frivolous young woman. Flibbertigibbet is a Middle English invention, a word that sounds like meaningless chatter, and it's still used fairly often in Yorkshire, England.
Vocabulary lists containing flibbertigibbet
Charlotte's Web
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To All the Boys I've Loved Before
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The Graveyard Book
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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.
As Orlando, Duke of Oxford and the spy agency’s founder, Fiennes might read more cuddly than studly, but he lends a surprising gravitas to this flibbertigibbet feature.
From New York Times ● Dec. 22, 2021
That left Jonathan with lifelong feelings of guilt, which led him on several occasions to announce that he was abandoning what he once called “this footling flibbertigibbet world of theater.”
From Seattle Times ● Nov. 27, 2019
Laura is a bit of a flibbertigibbet with a poor grasp of colloquial expressions.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 28, 2017
Her strongest bid was her first nomination in 2006, playing the pregnant flibbertigibbet Ashley in “Junebug.”
From Salon ● Feb. 28, 2016
That it was the Owenses who had got involved in this nonsense, rather than some flibbertigibbet johnny-come-latelies, counted for a lot, for the Owenses were respectable and respected.
From "The Graveyard Book" by Neil Gaiman
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.
