Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. One that babbles: a babbler of half-truths.
- n. A tape recording of numerous voices talking at the same time, used as an antibugging device to hinder or prevent eavesdropping.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. One who babbles; an idle talker; an irrational prater; one who says things heedlessly or mischievously.
- n. In ornithology: A name of various old-world dentirostral oscine passerine birds more or less nearly related to thrushes. plural The family Timaliidæ or subfamily Timaliinæ of Turdiæ, an uncertain group of generally short-winged and short-tailed birds, definable by no common characters. It contains a great number of birds not satisfactorily located elsewhere, and has been called “the ornithological waste-basket.”
- n. In hunting, a dog that yelps or gives tongue too much when in the field.
Wiktionary
- n. Someone who babbles.
- n. Any of several passerine birds, of the families Timaliidae (found in Asia, Africa) and Pomatostomidae (found in Australia).
- n. dated A hound who is too noisy on finding a good scent.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. An idle talker; an irrational prater; a teller of secrets.
- n. A hound too noisy on finding a good scent.
- n. (Zoöl.) A name given to any one of a family (
Timalinæ ) of thrushlike birds, having a chattering note.
WordNet 3.0
- n. any of various insectivorous Old World birds with a loud incessant song; in some classifications considered members of the family Muscicapidae
- n. an obnoxious and foolish and loquacious talker
Etymologies
- babble + -er (Wiktionary)
Examples
“Surely the serpent will bite without enchantment; and a babbler is no better.”
Commentary on the Whole Bible Volume III (Job to Song of Solomon)
“Wisdom will teach us to enchant the serpent we are to contend with, rather than think to out-hiss it (v. 11): The serpent will bite if he be not by singing and music charmed and enchanted, against which therefore he stops his ears (Ps.lviii. 4, 5); and a babbler is no better to all those who enter the lists with him, who therefore must not think by dint of words to out-talk him, but be prudent management to enchant him.”
Commentary on the Whole Bible Volume III (Job to Song of Solomon)
“As they afforded our apostle no better title than that of a "babbler," chap.xvii. 18, so for a long time they kept up the public vogue in the world, that Christianity was the religion of idiots and men illiterate.”
“It is pretty clear that they were to some extent under the influence of pique and irritation when they noticed his deviations from the established faith, and applied to him the epithet of "babbler;" but Paul was not the man to be put down either by irony or insult; and at length it was found necessary to allow him a fair opportunity of explaining his principles.”
The Ancient Church Its History, Doctrine, Worship, and Constitution
“Some of his hearers were disposed to treat him with contempt; they represented him as an ignorant "babbler," who had picked up a few scraps of learning, and who now sought to palm them off as a "new" philosophy.”
“The second guy totally blows off Gibbs, gets up, talking the whole time, and walks out on him .... what a face slap for the babbler!”
“Just think ..... only seven more months and we will no longer have to listen to this ancient babbler!”
“And how on this earth can 73% of Republicans approve of this incoherent babbler?”
“Plumage characters suggest that the Abyssinian catbird is a babbler whose nearest relative may be the bush blackcap, Lioptilus nigricapillus, found in the thickets and forests of eastern South Africa.”
The Guardian: Mystery bird: Ethiopian catbird, Parophasma galinieri
“Abyssinian catbird, Parophasma galinieri (protonym, Parisoma Galinieri), also known as the Ethiopian catbird or as the juniper babbler, photographed at the Bale Mountains, Ethiopia (Africa).”
The Guardian: Mystery bird: Ethiopian catbird, Parophasma galinieri
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘babbler’.
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SECOND LETTER A
Words in which the second letter is A
Aa, AAA, Baba, Babe, Babel, AAAA, tangential, baby, bach, back, bad, bade and 90 more...
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Interesting words
A list of words that are odd or words that I have looked up.
concupiscence, brize, scree, scoria, forestaff, spanaemia, valetudinarianism, distasture, pyrethrum, laudanum, gentian, bicameral and 11250 more...
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birds
birds with singular names from
at least 9 English dictionariesaasvogel, aberdevine, accentor, accipiter, aepyornis, agami, albatross, alcatras, alcid, alcidine, amadavat, amokura and 1056 more...
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dickinsonian
psalteries, enamoring, estates, whim, calyx, hoisted, nought, pentateuchal, retina, obviated, revelation, stalactite and 193 more...
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Still More Bird Wirds
A work in progress....Birds from around the world (other than endemic to North America).
barbet, hornbill, trogon, bee-eater, bristlehead, wren-babbler, stubtail, blackeye, bush warbler, cassowary, bowerbird, bird-of-paradise and 723 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for babbler.
ruzuzu Here's some of what the Century has to say about its use in ornithology: "It contains a great number of birds not satisfactorily located elsewhere, and has been called 'the ornithological waste-basket.'" Sep 27, 2011