garble

American  

[gahr-buhl] / ˈgɑr bəl /

verb (used with object)

garbled, garbling

1. to confuse unintentionally or ignorantly; jumble.

   to garble instructions.

2. to make unfair or misleading selections from or arrangement of (fact, statements, writings, etc.); distort.

   to garble a quotation.

3. Archaic. to take out the best of.

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noun

1. the act or process of garbling.

2. an instance of garbling; a garbled phrase, literary passage, etc.

garble British  

/ ˈɡɑːbəl /

verb

1. to jumble (a story, quotation, etc), esp unintentionally

2. to distort the meaning of (an account, text, etc), as by making misleading omissions; corrupt

3. rare to select the best part of

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noun

1. 1. the act of garbling

   2. garbled matter

Other Word Forms

• garbleable adjective
• garbler noun
• ungarbled adjective

Etymology

Origin of garble

1400–50; late Middle English garbelen to remove refuse from spices < Old Italian garbellare to sift < Arabic gharbala < Late Latin crībellāre, derivative of crībellum, diminutive of Latin crībrum sieve ( -elle ); probably influenced by garboil

Explanation

When you garble something, you warp or distort it, making it hard to understand. Talking with marbles in your mouth is one sure way of garbling your speech. When garble first emerged on the scene in the early 15th century, it meant "to sift" or "sort through." So imagine a sentence so scrambled that you have to sort through each word, trying to figure out what everything means. Garbling can happen by accident, like when your radio signal is bad and the songs get all distorted. But spies often jumble up their secret messages on purpose to protect them from prying eyes and ears.

Example Sentences

Subtitles wouldn’t be the worst idea, though a sibling garble is part of their brand.

From The Wall Street Journal • Oct. 16, 2025

Image: Meta When you use Voice Mode to garble the speech of those around you an icon will appear above your display name to indicate that you can’t hear what strangers are saying.

From The Verge • Jun. 14, 2022

It works by introducing errors that garble the genetic code of the virus and prevent it from making copies of itself.

From Washington Post • Nov. 4, 2021

Burton said even through his neighbor’s German accent, he heard him garble the phrase.

From Fox News • Sep. 24, 2021

Jock responded in a garble of excited Glaswegian syllables.

From "Code Name Verity" by Elizabeth Wein

Related Words

• misinterpret