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

Just don’t jabber about this mountain hideaway to anybody else, for we don’t need a stampede.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 13, 2019

I listen to jabber- jabber from Quebec, a farm report from Minnesota, and a country station in Nashville.

From "Speak" by Laurie Halse Anderson

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 heard an Irishman of the "bloody Tinth," and a "darn good regiment, be jabbers," speak up, and say, "Faith, gineral, we'll take up a collection and buy you a batthery, be Jasus."

From "Co. Aytch" Maury Grays, First Tennessee Regiment or, A Side Show of the Big Show by Sam R. Watkins

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

The guests jabbered on and on about the weather, about food, about football, about chess, about twins.

From "The Westing Game" by Ellen Raskin

“It was a perfect match of subversives,” the Oregonian wrote: “Wieden, the high-strung, jabbering, radical writer, and Kennedy, the taciturn, philosophical artist.”

From Washington Post ● Oct. 7, 2022

Eventually, I had to conclude — reluctantly — that it was indeed him, emoting from beneath pounds of ruddy latex and jabbering in an overblown accent traceable to somewhere in the vicinity of the Netherlands.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 27, 2022

When it’s time to stop jabbering and start jabbing, he believes there will be a big difference against a fighter who’s had only about half as many professional fights.

From Seattle Times ● May 27, 2022

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

This guy was real desperate for a friend because even though I wouldn’t say much back to him he kept jabbering away at me all through class.

From "The Watsons Go to Birmingham" by Christopher Paul Curtis