jabber
Americanverb (used with or without object)
noun
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
100 Words Every Middle Schooler Should Know
Looking to grow your vocabulary? Check out this interactive, curated word list from our team of English language specialists at Vocabulary.com – one of over 17,000 lists we've built to help learners worldwide!
The Watsons Go to Birmingham
Interested in learning more words like this one? Our team at Vocabulary.com has got you covered! You can review flashcards, quiz yourself, practice spelling, and more – and it's all completely free to use!
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Want to remember this word for good? Start your learning journey today with our library of interactive, themed word lists built by the experts at Vocabulary.com – we'll help you make the most of your study time!
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
Jacobs-Jenkins renders him as a wry, friendly figure who occasionally takes over the bodies of the other characters to explain what is happening beneath their jabber.
From New York Times ● Jun. 5, 2023
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
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
"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 Charlson, Watson
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
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
Khaled and Nadine jabbered in Arabic to each other.
From "Habibi" by Naomi Shihab Nye
There will be more jabbering Thursday, each team jockeying for what might be another historic final say.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 20, 2023
“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
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
The moment the cover had been removed, they had started jabbering and rocketing around, rattling the bars and making bizarre faces at the people nearest them.
From "Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets" by J. K. Rowling
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.
