Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- intransitive verb To reveal (secret matters), especially through indiscreet or unreserved talk.
- intransitive verb To reveal secret matters indiscreetly.
- intransitive verb To chatter thoughtlessly or indiscreetly.
- noun An incessant or indiscreet talker.
- noun Lengthy chatter.
from The Century Dictionary.
- To utter or tell in a thoughtless or unnecessary manner (what ought to be kept secret); let out (secrets).
- To talk indiscreetly; tattle; tell tales.
- noun A babbler; a telltale; one who betrays secrets, or tells things which ought to be kept secret.
- To swell out or up; make swollen, as the cheeks.
- noun A bubble; a blister; a swelling.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- transitive verb To utter or tell unnecessarily, or in a thoughtless manner; to publish (secrets or trifles) without reserve or discretion; -- sometimes used with out.
- intransitive verb To talk thoughtlessly or without discretion; to tattle; to tell tales.
- noun One who blabs; a babbler; a telltale.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- verb To tell tales; to
gossip without reserve or discretion. - noun One who blabs; a babbler; a telltale; a
gossip orgossiper .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- verb speak (about unimportant matters) rapidly and incessantly
- verb divulge confidential information or secrets
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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I always watch on C-Span anyway to avoid all the blab from the commentators.
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And the blab is a skill far more common to Bill Clinton's generation than to Bob Dole's.
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Even when she reached her home again, and Mrs. Byrne followed her in, afraid of leaving the frightened woman alone lest she should "blab" the whole secret to the first person she met, -- even then Mrs. Cregan could not speak until she had gathered up the broken dishes and propped the broken chair against the wall, as frantically as if she were trying to conceal the evidence of a crime.
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Pinkey had warned him that at the first openly hostile act he would "blab" the story of the Skull Creek episode far and wide.
The Dude Wrangler Caroline Lockhart 1916
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Old Liz, meanwhile, was carefully confined to another part of the house so that she might not discover the plot, and the tiger, from whom no secrets could by any possibility be kept, was forbidden to "blab" on pain of instant death and dismissal.
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Just exactly the kind of blab we don't need, it's an infection.
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MPs 'blab' and governments are 'responsible for security'
The Globe and Mail - Home RSS feed Norman Spector 2010
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After I'm dead and buried they'll jail you two healthy ones, and keep you until you 'blab'! "
The Ivory Trail Mundy, Talbot, 1879-1940 1920
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After I'm dead and buried they'll jail you two healthy ones, and keep you until you 'blab'! "
The Ivory Trail Talbot Mundy 1909
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Heh, I finally finished typing my post so if you went to that link and saw nothin, well, sorry! was blabbing! done now! you may now behold the blab that is my frustration!
bilby commented on the word blab
"He caught my elbow in his eagerness and drew me towards the house. 'You can lie as snug here as if you were in a moss-hole. I'll see that nobody blabs, either. And you'll give me some more material about your adventures?'"
- John Buchan, 'The Thirty-Nine Steps'.
August 27, 2009