gab

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

English

Etymology

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”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɡæb/

  • Audio (UK)

    (file)

• Rhymes: -æb

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.

Synonyms

• See also Thesaurus:talkative

Derived terms

• bafflegab
• begab
• gabby
• gift of the gab

Translations

Idle chatter

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

  Mandarin: 廢話 (zh), 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: бабыра- (babıra-),эбире- (ebire-)
• Russian: болтовня́ (ru) f (boltovnjá), трёп (ru) m (trjop)

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.

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

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Amanab

Noun

gab

1. a large dove

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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

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German

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɡaːp/

• Audio (Austria)

  (file)

• Audio

  (file)

• Rhymes: -aːp

Verb

gab

1. first/third-person singular preterite of geben

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Old French

Alternative forms

• gaab
• gap

Etymology

Borrowed from Old Norse gabb.

Noun

gab 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?

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