gobble
The sound of a turkey; or, a similar vocalisation of another bird.
Noun Scotland, slang
- Fellatio; a blowjob.
- Nowadays, he was lucky if his mam's auld drinking cronies gave him a gobble. - 2009, Mandasue Heller, The Charmer:
- An act of eating hastily or greedily.
- […] wrinkling his forehead and moving his jaws and throat violently, as if he expected to choke with each gobble. - 1983, Liam O'Flaherty, The Assassin, page 53:
- 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.
Origin
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.
Forms
Derived
Noun Entry 2
- The sound of a turkey; or, a similar vocalisation of another bird.
- 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. - 1886, Peter Christen Asbjørnsen, translated by H.L. Brækstad, Folk...
Origin
Onomatopoetic of the sound of a turkey.
Forms
Related
Verb Entry 3
- Of a turkey, to make its characteristic vocalisation; also, used of certain other birds.
- Not before this performance is over does he [a male capercaillie] settle down to play, and commence gobbling and snapping his beak. - 1886, Peter Christen Asbjørnsen, translated by H.L. Brækstad, Folk and Fairy Tales,...
- To make the sound of a turkey.
- He […] gobbles out a note of self-approbation. - 1774, Oliver Goldsmith, History of the Earth and Animated Nature:
Forms
Verb Entry 4
- To eat hastily or greedily; to scoff or scarf (often used with up)
- He gobbled four hot dogs in three minutes.
- 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. - 1828,...
- “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. - 1970, Richard Carpenter, Catweazle, Harmondsworth: Puffin Books, page...
Forms
Synonyms
Derived
chobble gobble down gobble off gobbler gobblesome gobble up gobbly ungobbled