Home British & World English gab

Definition of gab in English:

gab

verbgabs, gabbing, gabbed

[no object]informal

  • Talk at length.

    ‘Celeste was gabbing about the country before the war’
    • ‘Half my workteam is gabbing about this already.’
    • ‘Ross gabs regularly with a Georgian, his former Rangers team-mate Shota Arveladze, currently bagging goals for fun in Holland.’
    • ‘So Dee asked me if I'd go and tell them to join the rest of us - we'd been in the about 5 mins, got our drinks and gone to join The Lovely Couple and friend, but idiot and Evil Bint were gabbing away at the bar.’
    • ‘Never mind York's links with Europe, the city's business people spend more time gabbing on the blower to Americans than they do to French or Germans.’
    • ‘Johanna and I promised each other we'd sleep on the bus, but that was never going to happen, so we gabbed all the way.’
    • ‘Apart from the increased likelihood of heckling, self-contained groups like stag or hen parties tend to gab among themselves during performances, attention spans drained by too much drink.’
    • ‘‘I love working in a job that allows me to gab to people, that is where I am at my best,’ Clinton says of his sales career with British Gas.’
    • ‘They'd gab for hours and save the kids in the process.’
    • ‘When the lights are low and the drink is flowing, we gab for hours about pop music, politics and class A drugs we have known.’
    • ‘Meetings with your individual staff members are for them, not another chance for you to gab on for an hour.’
    • ‘However, mention pots, oatcakes and Wright's Pies and they gab away at you for hours!’
    • ‘Students passed through the hallways, gabbing obliviously.’
    • ‘Clearly, I spent far more time gabbing and eating than sewing.’
    • ‘She was that same blonde headed girl who was gabbing incessantly about Matt at tennis Regionals the previous Friday.’
    • ‘There is of course, a long historical tradition of maintaining a critical perspective on gurus in India, but before this post becomes too mammoth, I'll gab on about that another time.’
    • ‘Well, I think I may have gabbed enough to last a week or two… and it's just about time to go home - so off I go and have fun this weekend y'all.’
    • ‘The only thing we got to learn from him was how to gab without losing your audience.’
    • ‘They are a kind of basso ostinato for the diplomats who gather and gab.’
    • ‘From my mother's end, I could hear her gabbing about something to do with math equations.’
    • ‘He ran a Web log, where he freely gabbed about his impressions of life at the Mountain View, Calif. based Internet search giant.’
    chatter, chitter-chatter, chat, talk, gossip, gabble, babble, prattle, jabber, blather, blab
    View synonyms

noun

mass nouninformal

  • Talk; chatter.

    ‘fans should prefer her smooth delivery to the gab prevalent around the league’
    • ‘As the clock-hands sweep into the witching hour, on October 30, a new season of gab and glitter will open at the Varscona Theatre.’
    • ‘Montgomery's been in some superb bands and put out some solid solo records in the US, and I once had a nice long backyard gab with him about music over a keg.’
    • ‘The talk and news shows are equally diverse, with channels devoted to both liberal and conservative gab, the audio from cable TV news networks and a National Public Radio feed.’
    • ‘I discussed ‘Symbolism’ with Winthrop as we lunched on stale potato chips and water, but Winthrop was in no mood for hyperbolic gab.’
    • ‘But this is no girl gab where women bond over babies and birthing.’
    • ‘Deanna, a hard-working and good-natured woman, was gladly up to share a smoke and some gab when not working the dive deck.’
    • ‘As we listen to his wonderful gab, we should remember what he sometimes forgot or failed to say.’
    • ‘Stop at your best girl pal's place and get going with the gab.’
    • ‘Identify your conversational style, and then find out how to get the gab going with your crush!’
    • ‘By hanging out with the guys around the grill and listening in on the gab, the team eventually gathered a key insight that other forms of research had failed to deliver: A gas grill isn't really a tool that cooks the hamburgers and the hot dogs.’
    • ‘That's all the gab for now, but we'll keep our ears to the ground, and pay off maids to steal secret illicit sex tapes of the stars.’
    • ‘At the same time, people here don't know very much on the real situation in the world right now, and all the gab they get from the TV channels, which often involve the interpretations from Western mass media.’
    chatter, chat, talk, gossip, blather, blether, gibberish, drivel
    View synonyms

Phrases

    the gift of the gab
    informal

    • The ability to speak with eloquence and fluency.

      ‘my friend had the gift of the gab and gradually defused the situation’
      • ‘Nicole has the gift of the gab and the ability to fire out a quick response without thinking too much about it.’
      • ‘I note some tut-tutting over the methods employed by frontline reporters armed with only the gift of the gab, trying to convince Brown to speak to them.’
      • ‘The medallion imparts the gift of gab and is powered by solar energy.’
      • ‘Your delightful gift of gab can get you in gossip trouble but, of course, you can talk your way out of it.’
      • ‘Over 10 spirited contestants with a gift of the gab were chosen for the finals of the mock press competition.’
      • ‘Acting is not mere gift of the gab, but a skill that comes from a serious observation of life and all around.’
      • ‘He's a cheeky chappy who we're expected to find charismatic simply because he has the gift of the gab, but he's all cockiness and no collateral.’
      • ‘A lot of people only get honours because they have got the gift of the gab.’
      • ‘‘An anchor should have gift of the gab, be fluent in a language, maintain eye contact with the viewer and make the caller feel easy,’ she says.’
      • ‘It was this natural gift of the gab, her bright and lively manner and her instinct for a good yarn that helped her win a rare career break into broadcasting as she approached 40.’

Origin

Early 18th century variant of gob.

Pronunciation

gab

/ɡab/