brabble

verb, noun — 3 senses

brabble

verb

/ˈbɹæbəl/

Etymology From Middle Dutch brabbelen (“to quarrel, jabber”). Akin to babble. Compare modern Dutch brabbelen, German brabbeln (“to talk confusedly”).

1

Dated To make clamorous noises; to act noisily.

  • Then next is the Clinke, a gaol or prison for the trespassers in those parts; namely, in old time, for such as should brabble, frey, or break the peace on the said bank, or in the brothel houses, they were by the inhabitants thereabout apprehended and committed to this gaol, where they were straitly imprisoned.1598, John Stow, Survey of London, London: J.M. Dent, published 1912, page 362:
  • 1640, George Herbert, Jacula Prudentum; or, Outlandish Proverbs, Sentences, etc., in The Remains of that Sweet Singer of the Temple George Herbert, London: Pickering, 1841, p. 141, Brabbling curs never want sore ears.
2 more examples
  • 1883, Edward Maunde Thompson, Preface to Diary of Richard Cocks, cape-merchant in the English factory in Japan, 1615-1622, London: Hakluyt Society, p. xxxvi, And it was not only with the English that the Dutch sailors quarrelled. They were drunken and riotous and “brabbled” in the streets, till at last the long-suffering Japanese lost patience and seizing two of them summarily cut off their heads.
  • "There, let's have no brabbling!" My lord struck in good-humouredly.1925, Stanley John Weyman, “XII In Society”, in Queen's Folly:
2

To babble (of a stream or other watercourse).

  • Farther on, when they came to a miniature glen between the semblance of two hills, down which, in mockery of a torrent, brabbled a slim brown stream, MacLean stood still […]1902, Mary Johnston, chapter 9, in Audrey, New York: Grosset and Dunlap, page 121:
  • Down in the middle, among mossy boulders, the beck brabbled through golden sheets of Draba […]1921, Reginald Farrer, chapter 10, in The Rainbow Bridge, London: E. Arnold & Co, page 181:

brabble

noun

Etymology From Middle Dutch brabbelen (“to quarrel, jabber”). Akin to babble. Compare modern Dutch brabbelen, German brabbeln (“to talk confusedly”).

1

Dated A brawl, or commotion.

  • This petty brabble will undo us all.c. 1588–1593 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Lamentable Tragedy of Titus Andronicus”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene i]:
  • What they, by this their journey to Versailles, do specially want? The twelve speakers reply, in few words inclusive of much: "Bread, and the end of these brabbles […]"1837, Thomas Carlyle, The French Revolution: A History […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), London: Chapman and Hall, →OCLC, (please specify the book or page number):
Derived terms
brabblement, brabbler

Entry derived from the Wiktionary, under licence CC BY-SA 4.0 — list of authors.

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