gab

See also: Gab, GAB, gãb, gąb, gab-, -gab-, ġab, and ğab

Translingual

Symbol

gab

1. (international standards) ISO 639-3 language code for Gabri.

See also

• Wiktionary's coverage of Gabri terms

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɡæb/

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

• Rhymes: -æb

Etymology 1

Inherited from Middle English gab, gabbe, from Old Norse gabb (“jest, mockery”) (whence also Old French gab, gap (“mockery, derision, scorn”)). Cognate with Icelandic gabb (“hoax”).

Noun

gab (countable and uncountable, plural gabs)

1. Idle chatter.
   • 2019, Robert Eggers, Max Eggers, The Lighthouse (motion picture), spoken by Thomas Wake (Willem Dafoe):

     Ah, find some chirk in ye, lad. Now is the time for gab and chatter. Y’best be enjoying it. Come a fortnight and the brace of us’ll be wantin’ to be ever silent as the tomb. Even to clap eyes on each other... It’ll make y’hotter than hell!

2. The mouth or gob.
3. One of the open-forked ends of rods controlling reversing in early steam engines.
   • 1940 July, S. Richards, “Locomotive Valve gear Development”, in Railway Magazine, page 412:

     Loose eccentric reversing gear gave way about 1836 to the early forms of gab motion. [...] In 1840 Stephenson evolved a motion in which the gabs were connected directly to the valve spindle.

Derived terms

• bafflegab
• begab
• gabble
• gabby
• gift of the gab
• wide-gab

Translations

Idle chatter

• Assamese: বকনি (bokoni)
• Bulgarian: бърборене (bg) n (bǎrborene)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 廢話／废话 (zh) (fèihuà)

• Dutch: geklets (nl), gebabbel (nl), gekakel (nl)
• Esperanto: parolemo
• Finnish: pulina (fi), pälpätys (fi), löpinä
• French: bagou (fr) m
• Georgian: ყბედობა (q̇bedoba), ლაყბობა (laq̇boba)
• German: Geschwätz (de) n, Gequassel (de) n
• Japanese: 無駄話 (むだばなし, mudabanashi)
• Kyrgyz: бабыроо (ky) (babıroo),эбирөө (ebiröö)
• Russian: болтовня́ (ru) f (boltovnjá), трёп (ru) m (trjop)

Etymology 2

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 *gabbōną (“to mock, jest”), from Proto-Indo-European *gʰeh₁bʰ- (“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”).

Verb

gab (third-person singular simple present gabs, present participle gabbing, simple past and past participle gabbed)

1. (intransitive, obsolete) To jest; to tell lies in jest; exaggerate; lie.
   • 1866, Charles Kingsley, chapter 12, in Hereward the Wake, London: Nelson, page 181:

     He would chant his own doughty deeds, and “gab,” as the Norman word was, in painful earnest, while they gabbed only in sport, and outvied each other in impossible fanfaronades”

2. (intransitive) To talk or chatter a lot, usually on trivial subjects.
   • 1938, Norman Lindsay, Age of Consent, 1st Australian edition, Sydney, N.S.W.: Ure Smith, published 1962, →OCLC, page 26:

     "That Mrs. Mender gives a bloke the ear-ache; thinks a bloke's got all day to waste listening to her gab."

3. (transitive, obsolete) To speak or tell falsely.

Synonyms

• See also Thesaurus:speak.

Derived terms

• gabber
• gabbing

Translations

to talk or chatter a lot, usually on trivial subjects

• Assamese: বকা (boka)
• Bulgarian: бърборя (bg) (bǎrborja)
• Dutch: kletsen (nl)
• Finnish: pulista (fi), pälpättää (fi)
• French: papoter (fr), bavarder (fr), babiller (fr)
• Georgian: ყბედობა (q̇bedoba), ლაყბობა (laq̇boba)
• German: schwatzen (de), quasseln (de)
• Russian: болта́ть (ru) (boltátʹ), трепа́ться (ru) (trepátʹsja)

Anagrams

• ABG, AGB, BGA, GBA, bag

Amanab

Noun

gab

1. a large dove

Danish

Etymology

From Old Norse gap, verbal noun to gapa (“to gape”).

Noun

gab n (singular definite gabet, plural indefinite gab)

1. mouth, jaws
2. yawn
3. gap

Inflection

Declension of gab

neuter gender	Singular		Plural
	indefinite	definite	indefinite	definite
nominative	gab	gabet	gab	gabene
genitive	gabs	gabets	gabs	gabenes

German

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɡaːp/

• Audio (Austria):

  (file)

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -aːp

Verb

gab

1. first/third-person singular preterite of geben

Old French

Alternative forms

• gaab
• gap

Etymology

Borrowed from Old Norse gabb.

Noun

gab oblique singular, m (oblique plural gas, nominative singular gas, nominative plural gab)

1. joke
   • c. 1177, Chrétien de Troyes, Le Chevalier de la Charrette, page 50 (of the Livres de Poche Lettres gothiques edition, →ISBN, line 96:

     Est ce a certes ou a gas?

     Is this certain or in jest?

Related terms

• gaber

References

• Godefroy, Frédéric, Dictionnaire de l’ancienne langue française et de tous ses dialectes du IX^e au XV^e siècle (1881) (gab)
• gab on the Anglo-Norman On-Line Hub

Old High German

Alternative forms

• gap

Verb

gab

1. first/third-person singular past indicative of geban