Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To drink; drink of or from.
  • To drink often.
  • To sip.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb To eat and/or drink noisily.
  • verb To tipple.
  • verb Worry.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English bibben (from which also bib), either from Latin bibō ("I drink"), from Proto-Indo-European *peh₃-, or of imitative origin (onomatopoeia).

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Yiddish

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Examples

Comments

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  • To drink often or much; or to drink or eat noisily.

    June 12, 2008

  • Does this have anything to do with ishkabibble?

    July 19, 2008

  • Maybe. I found this citation online:

    "'Foxes have holes, Uncle Abner,' said Daisy, 'and the birds of the air have nests, but the son of man hath not where to lay his head. Why should we worry when we have such a bully place as this tent?''

    'Ish ka bibble,' said the Reverend Frank. 'Well,' said I, 'about the time the mosquitoes begin to come out of the marsh, you'll begin to bibble.'

    In this sense the meaning is akin to the verb to worry, etymology probably Yiddish.

    I suspect the meaning I originally cited is more likely to be from Latin bibere, to drink.

    July 19, 2008

  • And in Genoa, 'tis now the fashion to pin a live frog to the shoulder braid, stand in a bucket and go "bibble" at passers by.

    -- Edmund Blackadder

    July 31, 2008

  • Which is more uncouth... to bibble or to tipple?

    November 22, 2015

  • bibble and nibble I say.

    November 22, 2015

  • To tipple is not at all uncouth. To bibble, only slightly and in elevated company.

    November 24, 2015