Brabble

/ˈbɹæbəl/ · verb

Meaning

(dated) To make clamorous noises; to act noisily..

Definitions by Sense

1. (dated) To make clamorous noises; to act noisily.
2. To babble (of a stream or other watercourse).
3. (dated) A brawl, or commotion.

Example Sentences

1640, George Herbert, Jacula Prudentum; or, Outlandish Proverbs, Sentences, etc., in The Remains of that Sweet Singer of the Temple George Herbert, London: Pickering, 1841, p. 141, Brabbling curs never want sore ears.

1883, Edward Maunde Thompson, Preface to Diary of Richard Cocks, cape-merchant in the English factory in Japan, 1615-1622, London: Hakluyt Society, p. xxxvi, And it was not only with the English that the Dutch sailors quarrelled. They were drunken and riotous and “brabbled” in the streets, till at last the long-suffering Japanese lost patience and seizing two of them summarily cut off their heads.

Then next is the Clinke, a gaol or prison for the trespassers in those parts; namely, in old time, for such as should brabble, frey, or break the peace on the said bank, or in the brothel houses, they were by the inhabitants thereabout apprehended and committed to this gaol, where they were straitly imprisoned.

"There, let's have no brabbling!" My lord struck in good-humouredly.

Farther on, when they came to a miniature glen between the semblance of two hills, down which, in mockery of a torrent, brabbled a slim brown stream, MacLean stood still […]

Down in the middle, among mossy boulders, the beck brabbled through golden sheets of Draba […]

This petty brabble will undo us all.

What they, by this their journey to Versailles, do specially want? The twelve speakers reply, in few words inclusive of much: "Bread, and the end of these brabbles […]"

Synonyms for brabble

Antonyms for brabble

Related Words

Word Forms

• brabbles
• brabbling
• brabbled

Usage Notes

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