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gobble

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
See also: Gobble

English

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Pronunciation

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Etymology 1

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From Middle English gobben (“to drink or swallow greedily”), of uncertain origin +‎ -le (frequentative suffix). Middle English gobben is perhaps an alteration of Middle English globben (“to gulp down”), related to English gulpen (“to gulp”). However, compare also French gober.

Verb

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gobble (third-person singular simple present gobbles, present participle gobbling, simple past and past participle gobbled)

  1. To eat hastily or greedily; to scoff or scarf (often used with up)
    He gobbled four hot dogs in three minutes.
    • 1828, Thomas Keightley, The Fairy Mythology, volume I, London: William Harrison Ainsworth, page 200:
      He began, as his custom, to gobble it up, but when he had eaten for some time, he began to relax a little in his efforts, and at last he sat quite still, with his knife in his hand, looking at the pudding.
    • 1970, Richard Carpenter, Catweazle, Harmondsworth: Puffin Books, page 50:
      “The farm's had a lot of bad luck, you see. Dad thinks there is a curse on the place.” “Most like. Most like,” said Catweazle, gobbling the banana.
Synonyms
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Derived terms
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Translations
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Noun

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gobble (plural gobbles)

  1. (Scotland, slang, vulgar) Fellatio; a blowjob.
    • 2009, Mandasue Heller, The Charmer:
      Nowadays, he was lucky if his mam's auld drinking cronies gave him a gobble.
  2. (rare) An act of eating hastily or greedily.
    • 1983, Liam O'Flaherty, The Assassin, page 53:
      […] wrinkling his forehead and moving his jaws and throat violently, as if he expected to choke with each gobble.
  3. (golf) A rapid straight putt so strongly played that, if the ball had not gone into the hole, it would have gone a long way past.
Derived terms
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Etymology 2

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Onomatopoetic of the sound of a turkey.

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Verb

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gobble (third-person singular simple present gobbles, present participle gobbling, simple past and past participle gobbled)

  1. (ambitransitive) Of a turkey, to make its characteristic vocalisation; also, used of certain other birds.
    • 1886, Peter Christen Asbj&oslash￵rnsen, translated by H.L. Brækstad, Folk and Fairy Tales, page 72:
      Not before this performance is over does he [a male capercaillie] settle down to play, and commence gobbling and snapping his beak.
  2. (ambitransitive) To make the sound of a turkey.
    • 1774, Oliver Goldsmith, History of the Earth and Animated Nature:
      He […] gobbles out a note of self-approbation.
Translations
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Noun

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gobble (plural gobbles)

  2. The sound of a turkey; or, a similar vocalisation of another bird.
    • 1886, Peter Christen Asbj&oslash￵rnsen, translated by H.L. Brækstad, Folk and Fairy Tales, page 86:
      But while the hen continued her cackle he finished his first play, and had commenced the gobble of his second, when a twig cracked beneath my feet.
Translations
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See also

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