gab

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
Archived revision by Leasnam (talk | contribs) as of 20:55, 15 August 2022.
Jump to navigation Jump to search
See also: Gab, GAB, gãb, gąb, gab-, -gab-, ġab, and ğab

English

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ɡæb/
    • Audio (UK):(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.
  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
Translations

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 *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”).

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.
  2. (intransitive) To talk or chatter a lot, usually on trivial subjects.
    • 1938, Norman Lindsay, Age of Consent, Sydney: Ure Smith, published 1962, 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.
Derived terms
Translations

Anagrams

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

Verb

gab

  1. first/third-person singular preterite of geben

Old French

Alternative forms

Etymology

Borrowed from Old Norse gabb.

Noun

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

  1. joke
    • circa 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?

References

Old High German

Alternative forms

Verb

gab

  1. first/third-person singular past indicative of geban
Retrieved from "https://en.wiktionary.org/w/index.php?title=gab&oldid=68637898"