babbling

3 definitions found

babbling - Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 :

  Babble \Bab"ble\ (b[a^]b"b'l), v. i. [imp. & p. p. Babbled
     (b[a^]b"b'ld); p. pr. & vb. n. Babbling.] [Cf. LG. babbeln,
     D. babbelen, G. bappeln, bappern, F. babiller, It. babbolare;
     prob. orig., to keep saying ba, imitative of a child learning
     to talk.]
     1. To utter words indistinctly or unintelligibly; to utter
        inarticulate sounds; as a child babbles.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     2. To talk incoherently; to utter unmeaning words.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     3. To talk much; to chatter; to prate.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     4. To make a continuous murmuring noise, as shallow water
        running over stones.
        [1913 Webster]
  
              In every babbling brook he finds a friend.
                                                    --Wordsworth.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     Note: Hounds are said to babble, or to be babbling, when they
           are too noisy after having found a good scent.
           [1913 Webster]
  
     Syn: To prate; prattle; chatter; gossip.
          [1913 Webster]

babbling - WordNet (r) 2.1 (2005) :

  babbling
      n 1: gibberish resembling the sounds of a baby [syn: babble,
           babbling, lallation]

babbling - Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 :

  51 Moby Thesaurus words for "babbling":
     arrested, backward, blithering, bubbling, burbling, crackbrained,
     cracked, crazy, cretinistic, cretinous, delirious, dithering,
     dizzy, driveling, drooling, giddy, guggling, gurgling, half-baked,
     half-witted, idiotic, imbecile, imbecilic, incoherent, lapping,
     lightheaded, maundering, mentally defective, mentally deficient,
     mentally handicapped, mentally retarded, mongoloid, moronic,
     not all there, off, plashing, rambling, ranting, raving, retarded,
     rippling, simple, simpleminded, simpletonian, slobbering, sloshing,
     splashing, subnormal, swishing, trilling, wandering