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

Grant said he tried to make the deal work, but ultimately determined the tax would gobble up too much of the project’s future value.

From The Wall Street Journal ● May 20, 2026

Every year, healthcare expenses gobble up a growing portion of Social Security benefits.

From Barron's ● Jan. 29, 2026

“Sinners” is the most exciting film of 2025, both for what it is and for what it proves: that fresh blockbusters still exist and people are eager to gobble them up.

From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 5, 2025

“To think I worried about that little bird. I might have known it would gobble up a nice fat partridge in no time.”

From "The Witch of Blackbird Pond" by Elizabeth George Speare

Lately, she’s making a feast of roles that all remind me of that old sitcom episode in which Lucille Ball gobbles chocolates on a conveyor belt.

From Los Angeles Times ● May 21, 2026

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

My brain gobbles up the new information around me, as if each new thing it sees will help me forget an old thing in the theater.

From "Girl in the Blue Coat" by Monica Hesse

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

As the hot sun beats down, the pickle begins to shrivel and the animals must consider how they can honor its final wish: to be gobbled up by a dog.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 14, 2026

On the remote east side of Mono Lake, he said the animals gobbled down grass, roots and all, depriving certain birds of the worms that live in the vegetation — their sustenance.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 30, 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

Pascal and Patrice helped me scratch up a little plot that eventually produced a few bleak, dusty bouquets of spinach and beans, which were gobbled up one night by our neighbor’s goat.

From "The Poisonwood Bible" by Barbara Kingsolver

AI firms' growing pursuit of computing capacity is driving demand for energy to power data centres, as well as gobbling up rare raw materials for many of the high-end chips required.

From Barron's ● May 29, 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

Elon Musk is going all-in on artificial intelligence, but his xAI has been gobbling up SpaceX’s cash, diverting attention away from the rocket-launch and satellite operations.

From MarketWatch ● May 21, 2026

Rather, streaming platforms are gobbling up a growing share of ad dollars as their audiences expand.

From The Wall Street Journal ● May 12, 2026

He starts gobbling like a fool with feathers.

From "Marcus Vega Doesn't Speak Spanish" by Pablo Cartaya

Related Words

• devour
• gulp
• guzzle
• swallow