Home UK English jabber

Meaning of jabber in English:

jabber

Pronunciation /ˈdʒabə/

See synonyms for jabber

Translate jabber into Spanish

verb

[no object]

  • Talk in a rapid, excited, and often incomprehensible way.

    ‘he jabbered on about football’
    • ‘Big Bill is so desperate for attention these days that he might actually show up, and then you'd have a hard time getting rid of him as he jabbered on into the wee hours while your other guests stifle yawns and sneak peeks at their watches.’
    • ‘He jabbers, raves, and gestures to no one, in contradiction to the more subdued Hamlet of productions such as the 2000 Ethan Hawke film version.’
    • ‘Your neighbor may spend the whole flight jabbering on their mobile.’
    • ‘A woman jabbered in French into her hands-free phone.’
    • ‘Try telling the football fan jabbering on at full volume to an uninterested audience in the pub to tone it down and see where it gets you.’
    • ‘‘Oh yeah, you can't beat vinyl,’ he jabbers in a red-toothed west coast accent untamed by the phenomenal success of Wet Wet Wet, his band of two decades.’
    • ‘For over an hour he jabbered, babbled, screamed and ranted, never completing a full sentence.’
    • ‘I don't believe in superstition and I hate people jabbering about ghouls.’
    • ‘He's jabbering on about music, how you have to be careful about changing the music because it might upset or destroy the government.’
    • ‘They keep jabbering about deceit and cleaning up the government.’
    • ‘She hadn't a clue what they were jabbering about either.’
    • ‘The black girl has followed me from the toilet and is jabbering away like an excited child.’
    • ‘Half the programme was devoted to Liam jabbering on about boy bands, the press, Robbie Williams etc etc.’
    • ‘I spent the first hour jabbering away and trying to determine whether or not gasoline was actually being sold at the station.’
    • ‘In one episode of Frasier, his radio station decides to go for the Latino market, which means excitable men jabbering about soccer.’
    • ‘On that trip, I shared a lift with three French men jabbering away in this language I had been learning in class and I couldn't follow a word.’
    • ‘I thought I was about to be introduced when Katy began jabbering away about Murphy, my dog, who was sitting on the floor next to me.’
    • ‘Courtney and I were sitting at lunch one day just after New Years, jabbering away about whether or not we should make resolutions.’
    • ‘The man started wringing his hands, jabbering in some language.’
    • ‘I started off, walking stealthily in the shadows and saw Luke and George coming out of a house, jabbering animatedly.’
    prattle, babble, chatter, twitter, prate, gabble, go on, run on, rattle away, rattle on, yap, jibber-jabber, patter, blather, maunder, ramble, drivel, blab
    View synonyms

noun

mass noun

  • Rapid, excited, and often incomprehensible speech.

    ‘Now, if you're going to fight me, stop the jibber jabber and let's get started!’
    • ‘Some of the Kagan / Lewis conversation about bloggers consisted, for the most part, of often incomprehensible jabber like this.’
    • ‘Demetrius is frustrated with Hermia's jabber and constant chatter and tells her he did nothing of the sort.’
    • ‘Maria could see the boy's mouths moving, but the words descended into incomprehensible jabber.’
    • ‘The locals weren't mad about all that foreign jabber or all those people stretched out, covered in Nivea cream and not surfing, but it was all right.’
    • ‘Nonetheless, there will be lots of jabber about posturing about the value of precedent at the Senate hearings.’
    • ‘Tabitha didn't consider what others might think of her looking so happy so soon after her father's passing; she didn't have the chance, with Mister Knighton's constant foolish jabber.’
    • ‘After that comment, sure enough her sister conjured up the same lecture about swearing to Blair, Blair was just a bit put down when she couldn't walk away from this incessant jabber of her sister's idea on etiquette.’
    • ‘He was muttering unconnected phrases, like ‘make you love me’ ‘dog… no, mine’ it was insane jabber.’
    • ‘After nearly twenty minutes of this pointless and boring (and, in some cases, untruthful) jabber, the coach blew four quick whistle blasts and gave a long, loud holler.’
    • ‘I shouldn't have distracted myself with useless jabber!’
    • ‘He thought a moment, ‘But it's so boring without your mindless jabber,’ he whined to her.’
    • ‘There is so much mindless golf jabber on TV that I would welcome a season-long commentator lockout.’
    • ‘Brae sat back happily and listened half-heartedly to Chase's unceasing jabber.’
    • ‘It was like the endless jabber on the radio, without having a way to turn it off.’
    • ‘Isaiah raised his hand, signaling him to stop the jabber, ‘The file has been submitted one to you and a copy to the Archive database.’’
    • ‘Is it perfectly OK or just plain trashy for the man who once was the leader of the free world to join the jabber on TV?’
    • ‘Lost amid the jabber over what the Next Big Thing in passenger vehicles is likely to be, is the humble midsized sedan.’
    • ‘There I sat in Language Arts listening to the jabber of everyone in the class.’
    • ‘Following them were cops, shouting out orders to each other in a loud jabber of falsely intelligent strictness.’
    prattle, babble, chatter, chattering, twitter, twittering, prating, gabble, jibber-jabber, patter, blather, rambling, twaddle, drivel
    View synonyms

Origin

Late 15th century imitative.