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Jabberwocky

[jab-er-wok-ee]
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noun, plural Jab·ber·wock·ies.
  1. a playful imitation of language consisting of invented, meaningless words; nonsense; gibberish.
  2. an example of writing or speech consisting of or containing meaningless words.
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adjective
  1. consisting of or comparable to Jabberwocky; meaningless; senseless.
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Also Jab·ber·wock [jab-er-wok] /ˈdʒæb ərˌwɒk/.

Origin of Jabberwocky

coined by Lewis Carroll in Jabberwocky, poem in Through the Looking Glass (1871)
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Related Words for jabberwocky

blather, prate, ranting, murmur, blatherskite, nonsense, gabble, drivel, gab, gossip, chatter, prattle, gibberish, jargon, jabber, clamor, twaddle, muttering, jabbering, claptrap

Examples from the Web for jabberwocky

Contemporary Examples of jabberwocky

Historical Examples of jabberwocky

  • I heard somebody say "Sh," but she started in her toothless Jabberwocky.

    The Red Rugs of Tarsus

    Helen Davenport Gibbons

  • A setting of Lewis Carroll's immortal "Jabberwocky" shows much rich humor of the college glee-club sort.

  • After that some Indians came on the scene of action, fierce red men of the forest, and their language was decidedly Jabberwocky.

    A Little Girl in Old New York

    Amanda Millie Douglas

British Dictionary definitions for jabberwocky

jabberwocky

noun plural -wockies
  1. nonsense verse
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Word Origin for jabberwocky

C19: coined by Lewis Carroll as the title of a poem in Through the Looking Glass (1871)
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for jabberwocky

Jabberwocky

1872, nonsense word (perhaps based on jabber) coined by Lewis Carroll, for the poem of the same name, which he published in "Through the Looking-Glass." The poem is about a fabulous beast called the Jabberwock.

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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper