Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

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

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A hook or crook; specifically, the hook on an eccentricrod which engages the wrist on the rock-shaft lever of a valve-motion.
  • To jest; lie in jest; speak with exaggeration; lie.
  • To talk idly; talk much; chatter; prate.
  • To speak or tell falsely.
  • To project like a tusk.
  • noun The mouth.
  • noun A jest; joke; mock; a piece of pleasantry.
  • noun Idle talk; chatter; loquacity.
  • noun Same as gaub.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun (Steam Engine) The hook on the end of an eccentric rod opposite the strap. See. Illust. of eccentric.
  • noun colloq. The mouth; hence, idle prate; chatter; unmeaning talk; loquaciousness.
  • noun [Colloq.] facility of expression.
  • intransitive verb obsolete To deceive; to lie.
  • intransitive verb To talk idly; to prate; to chatter.

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

  • noun idle chatter
  • noun mouth as gob
  • verb intransitive, obsolete To jest; to tell lies in jest; exaggerate; lie.
  • verb intransitive To talk or chatter a lot, usually on trivial subjects.
  • verb transitive, obsolete To speak or tell falsely.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb talk profusely
  • noun light informal conversation for social occasions

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

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

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English gabben, from Old English gabban ("to scoff, mock, delude, jest") and Old Norse gabba ("to mock, make sport of"); both from Proto-Germanic *gabbanan (“to mock, jest”), from Proto-Indo-European *ghabh- (“to be split, be forked, gape”). Cognate with Scots gab ("to mock, prate"), North Frisian gabben ("to jest, sport"), Middle Dutch gabben ("to mock"), Middle Low German gabben ("to jest, have fun").

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Examples

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  • Gabbs Airport (Nevada).

    October 29, 2008