jabber
Americanverb (used with or without object)
-
jabbers,
present (3rd person singular)
-
jabbered,
past participle, past
-
jabbering
present participle
noun
-
jabbers
plural
verb
noun
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
jabbersimple
-
jabberssimple
-
have jabberedperfect
-
has jabberedperfect
-
am jabberingprogressive
-
are jabberingprogressive
-
is jabberingprogressive
-
have been jabberingperfect progressive
-
has been jabberingperfect progressive
Past
-
jabberedsimple
-
had jabberedperfect
-
was jabberingprogressive
-
were jabberingprogressive
-
had been jabberingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of jabber
Explanation
When someone starts to jabber, they start talking on and on about this or that, or that or this, in an excited, sometimes incoherent way. Jabber is a close cousin to blabber. When someone jabbers, sometimes their words seem to fly out of their mouths like quick punches (jabs!) from a boxer. Some examples of jabber? You know, like when someone has a hobby that you don’t really care about or understand but they won’t quit talking about it? Yeah, they jabber. Or your best friend is relating, without end, his excitement about the coming tiddlywinks championship and you comprehend neither the game nor its importance? That friend jabbers, too.
Vocabulary lists containing jabber
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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:
Marine Le Pen said the press conference was "yet another interminable jabber".
From BBC ● Jan. 17, 2024
This accursed Olympiad has brought a lot—a lot—of jabber about diversity and inclusion and athlete safety and athlete centeredness.
From Slate ● Aug. 1, 2021
If there were, the loudest mouth and wittiest jabber would have thought of it by now.
From Washington Post ● May 4, 2020
While Bartles — the rancher — would jabber away as the pair stared at the camera, Jaymes had it easy.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 29, 2015
I was nearly unconscious, and all I could hear was the nonstop jabber of Samir entertaining the men around him.
From "The Many Assassinations of Samir, the Seller of Dreams" by Daniel Nayeri
The men’s antagonism deepens as Wake jabbers and Winslow rages, a fury that Pattinson makes visible with eyes that widen into bulges and tremors of emotion that ping under a masklike vacancy.
From New York Times ● Oct. 16, 2019
Lorena jabbers on about something, but I’m not really paying attention because she calls herself a restauraNteur, so she loses all credibility in my book.
From Washington Post ● Mar. 17, 2011
"Yeah, John Kirk, yeah!" writes, or shouts, or yells, or jabbers Piers Gee.
From The Guardian ● Oct. 16, 2010
Now, in orchestrated and intermittent darkness, something less familiar is afoot as Firs, an old man in a nightshirt, with staring eyes, urges us to enter and jabbers at us in Russian.
From The Guardian ● May 8, 2010
I—I know you are only a bullfrog, but, be jabbers, that sounded mightily like speech.
From Freckles by Gene Stratton-Porter
We did not necessarily follow Boyle’s meat and beverage protocols, but we jabbered away in a red leather booth, and a good time was had by all.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 3, 2026
It was a woman in a blue dress who stood in a stairwell above them, gazing upward in a warm beam of light as Rep. Matt Gaetz jabbered at her feet.
From Slate ● Oct. 24, 2019
The Oakland, Calif., native was one of the game's notorious trash-talkers, who jabbered away at opposing players, coaches and fans while constantly bobbing his head.
From Seattle Times ● Apr. 4, 2013
The UN have intervened on flimsier grounds than those offered by Ashley Cole and Bellamy as they jabbered and jabbed their way through the first half-hour, until Bellamy, regrettably, switched flanks.
From The Guardian ● Mar. 26, 2011
She jabbered incessantly about the song she’d been playing, what she thought of our mother’s mushroom soup, how much she wanted to go to high school.
From "Made You Up" by Francesca Zappia
After jabbering about it since 2023, Tyreek Hill and Noah Lyles announced they are going to race, but the speed freaks can’t say where and can’t say when.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 14, 2025
The hospital sent trusted colleagues and supervisors to talk to unvaccinated colleagues, a strategy that Lubarsky said was “far more effective than me jabbering over an email.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 1, 2021
When mom called back to them, “You girls are starting to sound like a broken record,” the jabbering was replaced by confused silence.
From Washington Post ● Aug. 1, 2021
The larger question is how much damage, direct and collateral, has been done to the sport since this jabbering over money went public, even if it ends with some semblance of a season.
From Seattle Times ● Jun. 18, 2020
Even Pollard, who had been jabbering gaily with reporters since his arrival, stopped talking.
From "Seabiscuit: An American Legend" by Laura Hillenbrand
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
