burble

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“
I love the sound of the engines; that V8 burble, and the roar they make blasting down the track?

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Definitions (11)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (5)

  1. noun A gurgling or bubbling sound, as of running water.
  2. noun A rapid, excited flow of speech.
  3. noun A separation in the boundary layer of fluid about a moving streamlined body, such as the wing of an airplane, causing a breakdown in the smooth flow of fluid and resulting in turbulence.
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Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (4)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (1)

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Examples (50)

  • It was a quiet background burble, similar to the aura of any human settlement. —  Hamilton, Peter F. - [Void 01] - The Dreaming Void
  • I thought he was peering at me expectantly, as though he knew I would immediately begin to burble his very words. —  Secret Ceremonies
  • Stirring the IS-F's Yahama-fettled (go figure) direct-injection 5. 0-liter V8 - the same engine that helps the LS 600hL get out of its own way in a hybrid hurry - rouses a pillow-smothered burble. —  The Truth About Cars
  • There's a moderate amount of text in the game, so early readers may struggle a bit - either that, or parents will have to put up with the sickly sweet repeated tunes that burble out of the DS with alarming monotony. —  CNET Australia
  • It's all very well to burble on about EU law, the BNP, and the 'swings and roundabouts' of globalisation but what people feel is quite different. —  Belfasttelegraph.co.uk - Frontpage RSS Feed
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This word has been looked up 107 times.

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Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

Used in the same context Used in the Same Context

Used in the same contextWord Family

burble:   burbles
Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (3)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Middle English burblen, to bubble.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (2)

  1. Early modern English, from Middle English burblen, burbulen, burbilen, brobilen, also (in def. 2) contr. burlen; cf. French dial. (Picard) borbouller, murmur, = Spanish borbollar, burbujear = Portuguese borbolhar, borbulhar = Italian borbogliare, bubble, gush; in another form Old French borboter, dial. (Picard) borboter, = Spanish borbotar, bubble, gush; cf. Picard barboter = Spanish barbotar = Catalan barbotejar = Italian dial. barbottà, mutter, mumble; Greek βορβορύζειν, rumble (see borborygmus); all ult. imitative, burble in English being practically a variant of bubble, q. v. Cf. purl.
  2. Early modern English or dial., from Middle English burble, burbulle, burbyll, a bubble; cf. Spanish burbuja = Portuguese borbulha, a bubble; from the verb.
 

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