gab

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“
Park Gi-gab is a professor in the college of law at Korea University in Seoul.

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Definitions (17)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (2)

  1. intransitive verb To talk idly or incessantly, as about trivial matters.
  2. noun Idle talk; chatter.

Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (10)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (3)

Toggle WordNet definitions WordNet (2)

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Examples (50)

  • For all her gab, a party was probably on the tracks this moment, lurched toward wondrous destruction. —  I SING THE BODY ELECTRIC! - Ray Bradbury
  • That Nussbaum lacks the gift of gab is accentuated by West's return - driven by Taylor around Manhattan as he opines on the courage to think, with a torrent of name-dropping that climaxes in his delighted self-characterization as "a jazz man in the life of the mind." —  SF Weekly | Complete Issue
  • Resplendent in kente gab, Atta Mills told the crowd that "it is a dawn of a new era for Ghana and I hope to tap the experiences of the two former Presidents [Jerry J. Rawlings and John Kufuor] to build a better Ghana." —  AllAfrica News: Latest
  • IN two African countries recently, the soldiers have flexed their muscles in a manner suggesting, for Africa, at least, the barrel of the gun still wields more clout than the gift for the gab, or all the diplomatic razzmatazz you can think of.
  • Legend has it that if you dream of having the gift of the gab, then you paste a gold leaf on the deity's mouth.
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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

gab:   gabbing
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 (8)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Middle English gabben, to scoff, speak foolishly, from Old Norse gabba, to scoff.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (7)

  1. from Middle English gabben, talk idly, jest, lie in jest, lie (the alleged Anglo-Saxon *gabban, in Somner, is a myth), from Icelandic gabba, mock, make game of one; cf. OFries. gabbia, accuse, prosecute, NFries. gobbien, laugh, gabben, jest, sport (Richthofen). The Roman forms, Old French gaber = Provencal gabar = Italian gabbare, mock, deride, deceive, cheat, = Portuguese gabar, praise, reflexive boast, are also of Scandinavian origin. Hence gab, n. gabble, freq., and ult. gibber and jabber: see these words, and cf. gab, n. There is no proof of the supposed ult. Celtic origin (Irish cab, gab, gob, the mouth, etc.: see gab, gob).
  2. from Middle English gabbe, idle talk, lying; cf. Icelandic gabb = Swedish gabb, mocking, mockery (Old French gab, etc.: see gab); from the verb. Cf. gab.
  3. Scots, = North. English gob, the mouth: see gob.
  4. apparently from gab, the mouth; or a variant of gag or gap, assimilated to gab.
  5. Origin obscure.
  6. Old French, also gap, gaab, masculine, also gabe, feminine, = Provencal gab = Italian gabbo, a jest, joke, mock, mockery, = Portuguese gabo, praise (ult. identical with gab, n., q. v.); from the verb: see under gab, v.
  7. Hindustani
 

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/gɑb/
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