jabber

American  

[jab-er] / ˈdʒæb ər /

verb (used with or without object)

• jabbers,
  present (3rd person singular)
• jabbered,
  past participle,  past
• jabbering
  present participle

1. to talk or utter rapidly, indistinctly, incoherently, or nonsensically; chatter.

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noun

• jabbers
  plural

1. rapid, indistinct, or nonsensical talk; gibberish.

jabber British  

/ ˈdʒæbə /

verb

1. to speak or say rapidly, incoherently, and without making sense; chatter

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noun

1. such talk

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• jabberer
  noun
• jabberingly
  adverb

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• jabbers
  plural

Participles

• jabbering
  present
• jabbered
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• jabber
  simple
• jabbers
  simple
• have jabbered
  perfect
• has jabbered
  perfect
• am jabbering
  progressive
• are jabbering
  progressive
• is jabbering
  progressive
• have been jabbering
  perfect progressive
• has been jabbering
  perfect progressive

Past

• jabbered
  simple
• had jabbered
  perfect
• was jabbering
  progressive
• were jabbering
  progressive
• had been jabbering
  perfect progressive

Future

• will jabber
  simple
• will have jabbered
  perfect
• will be jabbering
  progressive
• will have been jabbering
  perfect progressive

Etymology

Origin of jabber

1490–1500; apparently imitative; cf. gibber, gab ¹

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.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

jabber jabbers jabbered jabbering

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

When we make first contact with the aliens in other universes and jabber at them in our local code, they cannot understand us without a sci-fi Universal Translator.

From "The Sense of Style" by Steven Pinker

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

Think of that! little Katy Lennox with a waiting maid, who jabbers French half the time, for she speaks that language as well as her own, having been abroad with the family once before.

From Family Pride Or, Purified by Suffering by Holmes, Mary Jane

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

As men jabbered around us, the woman tightened her hold on me.

From New York Times ● Aug. 28, 2013

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

His mind, suddenly impossibly old, floated out of his body and hovered high above him in the air, from where it jabbered useless warnings.

From "The God of Small Things" by Arundhati Roy

The incessant jabbering between Joe Davis and Orel Hershiser during every Dodgers game has ruined the game-watching experience for me.

From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 13, 2024

But there was too much of them hanging over the bakers, jabbering away, not being helpful and sometimes, one felt, being an actual hindrance.

From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 27, 2020

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

Meanwhile, she warps the expectations of verse-chorus-verse forms, talk-singing or chanting as long as she wishes, sometimes letting choruses of overdubbed Fionas — dulcet ones, jabbering ones — completely hijack her tunes.

From New York Times ● Apr. 17, 2020

I’d programmed Max to start up a few minutes after I turned on the lights, so I could wake up a little bit before he started jabbering to me.

From "Ready Player One: A Novel" by Ernest Cline