jabber
Americanverb (used with or without object)
-
jabbers,
present (3rd person singular)
-
jabbered,
past participle, past
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jabbering
present participle
noun
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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
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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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The Watsons Go to Birmingham
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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
A talking head spewing out well scripted "jibber jabber" to appease the masses.
From New York Times ● Mar. 14, 2016
Through the loosely placed boards in the wall floated the bark and jabber of a talk-radio show about the latest soccer perfidy from Argentina, Brazil’s hated rival.
From "1491" by Charles C. Mann
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
"There's one of them jabbers double-Dutch, and the other talks Dutch-double—except the few English words he's picked up since he's been here; and the names of all the foods—he knows them right enough!"
From The Gap in the Fence by Watson Charlson
We jabbered about whether Bryant was better than Michael Jordan and the intense rivalry between the Sixers and the Lakers in the 1980s as we waited for Bryant’s face to flash again on the screen.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 24, 2024
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
A year back, organizational swamis jabbered about Dominic Smith, the first baseman of the future.
From New York Times ● Aug. 1, 2018
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
“Mr. Rael?” a woman’s voice jabbered irately, “you ain’t gonna believe this, but guess what?”
From "The Milagro Beanfield War" by John Nichols
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
She’d piloted us expertly through a chaotic market, jabbering with street vendors.
From "Becoming" by Michelle Obama
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.
