gobble

¹ American  

[gob-uhl] / ˈgɒb əl /

verb (used with object)

gobbled, gobbling

1. to swallow or eat hastily or hungrily in large pieces; gulp.

   Synonyms:

   devour, bolt

2. to seize upon eagerly (often followed byup ).

   After being gone for so long, they gobbled up all the local news.

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verb (used without object)

gobbled, gobbling

1. to eat hastily.

gobble ² American  

[gob-uhl] / ˈgɒb əl /

verb (used without object)

gobbled, gobbling

1. to make the characteristic throaty cry of a male turkey.

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noun

gobbles plural

1. the cry itself.

gobble ¹ British  

/ ˈɡɒbəl /

noun

1. the loud rapid gurgling sound made by male turkeys

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interjection

1. an imitation of this sound

verb

1. (intr) (of a turkey) to make this sound

gobble ² British  

/ ˈɡɒbəl /

verb

1. to eat or swallow (food) hastily and in large mouthfuls

2. informal to snatch

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• gobbles
  plural

Etymology

Origin of gobble¹

1595–1605; probably imitative; see gob ¹, -le

Origin of gobble²

First recorded in 1670–80; variant of gabble

Explanation

To gobble is to eat quickly — really quickly. When you gobble your dinner, you hardly even chew your food. You’ve probably been told that gobbling your food is impolite. However, maybe you can get away with it if you impress your dining companions with some interesting facts about this word’s history. Gobble comes from an Old French word meaning “a mouthful” or “a lump.” It’s related to gob, a slang term for “mouth” in the UK.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

gobble gobbles gobbled gobbling

Balds — fish lovers themselves — can consume hooks and sinkers when they gobble down their prey, potentially poisoning them, Koh said.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 20, 2026

In recent days, she said, she’s been surprised by the eye-popping household incomes of those trying to gobble up typical two-bedroom apartments.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 18, 2026

Jackrabbits or other critters that need the water encased in the plant often gobble them up.

From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 21, 2025

Power plants that had been slated for closure have been pressed into longer service while new ones come online as tech giants gobble up gigawatts of capacity.

From Barron's ● Oct. 16, 2025

“That’s because you’re a wolf.You’d gobble him up instead.”

From "The House of the Scorpion" by Nancy Farmer

Meanwhile, the consumer-electronics world faces an acute memory-chip shortage, as AI-infrastructure demand gobbles up semiconductor supplies and thus threatens to drive up the price of things like smartphones and laptops.

From MarketWatch ● Apr. 25, 2026

The idea is to ensure XTX can keep training its models cheaply even as the AI boom gobbles up ever more data-center capacity worldwide.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 23, 2026

Market research firms like IDC and Counterpoint Research have indicated that the weakness is in the Android market, while Apple gobbles up market share amid a memory chip shortage.

From Barron's ● Apr. 16, 2026

Once again, our heroine is a steely, scrappy young woman who has a single vice — Weaving’s Grace had a penchant for cigarettes; Barrera’s Joey gobbles hard candy.

From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 16, 2024

"Spinach, of course. Don't you remember how Popeye gobbles spinach every time he needs more strength and bigger muscles?"

From "All About Sam" by Lois Lowry

I wrote a daily newsletter about energy policy at the time, and, in my efforts to be at the forefront of the news, I gobbled up those nuggets as well.

From Slate ● Jul. 27, 2026

It also gobbled up nearly two-thirds of U.S. venture capital last year, with San Francisco Bay Area startups such as OpenAI leading the way, according to the business information platform Crunchbase.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 6, 2026

Since the books became an international phenomenon, we’ve lined up for the resulting movies, gobbled up licensed merchandise, and bought tickets to its hit play and theme parks.

From Salon ● Apr. 2, 2026

During his more than three decades as Simon Property Group’s chief executive, the inveterate dealmaker gobbled up competitors and defied critics, who said malls were obsolete.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 23, 2026

She then loudly gobbled over the discussions that had erupted.

From "Healer of the Water Monster" by Brian Young

Tech giants are gobbling up memory chips for AI servers, leaving Apple with soaring component costs that Tim Cook says will inevitably be passed on to consumers.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 17, 2026

But he learned how to make pizza, and how much customers loved gobbling it up, while working at different gas station mini-marts around rural Nevada.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 14, 2026

The marauding monkeys brazenly snatch ice cream, cakes and crisps from unwitting tourists in addition to gobbling abandoned leftovers from bins or food directly offered to them.

From Barron's ● May 22, 2026

Grogu does a lot of it, at points gobbling a scorpion and the Star Wars version of popcorn.

From The Wall Street Journal ● May 22, 2026

As I sat opposite Falconer, gobbling my bread and herring, a quarrel kindled among the dice players.

From "The Shakespeare Stealer" by Gary L. Blackwood

Related Words

• devour
• gulp
• guzzle
• swallow