gurgle
Americanverb (used without object)
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gurgles,
present (3rd person singular)
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gurgled,
past participle, past
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gurgling
present participle
verb (used with object)
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gurgles,
present (3rd person singular)
-
gurgled,
past participle, past
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gurgling
present participle
noun
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gurgles
plural
verb
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(of liquids, esp of rivers, streams, etc) to make low bubbling noises when flowing
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to utter low throaty bubbling noises, esp as a sign of contentment
the baby gurgled with delight
noun
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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gurglesimple
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gurglessimple
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have gurgledperfect
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has gurgledperfect
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am gurglingprogressive
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are gurglingprogressive
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is gurglingprogressive
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have been gurglingperfect progressive
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has been gurglingperfect progressive
Past
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gurgledsimple
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had gurgledperfect
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was gurglingprogressive
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were gurglingprogressive
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had been gurglingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of gurgle
First recorded in 1555–65; compare Dutch, Middle Low German gorgelen, German gurgeln “to gargle”; akin to Latin gurguliō “throat”
Explanation
To gurgle is to make a sound like bubbling or splashing water. Not to be confusing, but when you gargle mouthwash, you probably gurgle. People gurgle when they say something (or make a noise) with an accompanying wet, gurgling sound. Your stomach might gurgle too, especially when you're hungry. And liquid itself gurgles, like a stream that gurgles over rocks or sweet iced tea that gurgles from a bottle into your glass. Experts aren't sure if gurgle is an imitative word, from the sound itself, or if it's rooted in Latin.
Vocabulary lists containing gurgle
Instead of "Said": Words That Sound Like What They Mean
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Lend Me Your Ears: Sound Words
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Ghost Boys
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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.
See Examples For:
Its tick was a low-key gurgle and the alarm a dignified two-bell chime.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 11, 2026
Toddlers who spot the coolly bespectacled, gray-haired septuagenarian at an airport point and gurgle, “Yo Gabba Gabba!” thanks to Mothersbaugh’s painting segment called “Mark’s Magic Pictures” on the wildly popular kids show.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 11, 2025
She expected to hear icebergs calving off the glacier—perhaps even the low, garden-hose gurgle of a subglacial river gushing out from underneath the glacier.
From National Geographic ● Sep. 7, 2023
But the last time I called, he could only gurgle on the phone, having suffered a stroke.
From Seattle Times ● Mar. 24, 2023
It began not with an absence of noise or a deafening crush of earth, but with the gurgle of water and the alarm of a siren.
From "Mountain of Fire" by Rebecca E. F. Barone
When he meets adults he stares at them and takes them in, then kindly smiles and gurgles and lets them pat him, ruffle his hair, and take his face in their hands.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 26, 2025
No cries or gurgles, the unnerving silence in the room is only broken by the high-pitched beeps of a pulse rate monitor.
From BBC ● Sep. 9, 2024
On a visit to a Texas ostrich farm, the researchers recorded 11 types of calls, ranging from high frequency peeps and gurgles in baby ostriches to low frequency boos and booms in adult males.
From Science Daily ● May 23, 2024
They spent the night in cabins with no doors or windows, the better to let nighttime mountain breezes and the gurgles of the river lull them to sleep.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 27, 2023
He shivered against me, his murps only gradually quieting into contented gurgles as he calmed down.
From "Endangered" by Eliot Schrefer
His dance partner, tax and accounting professional Omarr Herrera, 44, a stranger until this moment, gurgled back, “Ahhhh, I love you!”
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 28, 2025
One-year-old Dilesh gurgled happily, playing with others who work there, while Netam answered questions from Poyam: “What will the doctor ask me? Do I need documents? Can my husband come to visit me?”
From Seattle Times ● Dec. 20, 2022
Rock pigeons cooed and gurgled inside small crevices in the cave walls, marred in places by graffiti from long-ago visitors.
From Washington Post ● Jul. 22, 2021
In a dull and childless marriage to “a bastard of the standard-issue variety,” she is biding her time at Goode’s, her life “slipping away with the rinsing water as it gurgled down the plughole.”
From New York Times ● Feb. 11, 2020
I selected the fountain that gurgled outside the guesthouse where the Paqo and I had stayed, although it was weaker and quieter now.
From "The Ugly One" by Leanne Statland Ellis
On many tracks, he crafts a thickened variation on Bob Dylan’s wild mercury sound, with gurgling organ, touches of strings and horns, and evocative swells of pedal-steel guitar.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 24, 2026
Soon Conor’s two preoccupations will unite in an offbeat way when a bug gets crushed in his slow-acting printer while it’s gurgling out a portrait.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 8, 2026
Contemporary accounts describe an idyllic place of manicured lawns, a gurgling fountain and decent food and lodging.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 10, 2025
The court heard how fire crews were alerted to the presence of a woman by a gurgling sound.
From BBC ● Dec. 2, 2024
Um, sir?” said Kojo, pointing at the gurgling beaker of purple gunk.
From "The Smartest Kid in the Universe" by Chris Grabenstein
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.
