subs. (vulgar).—1. A babbler: a depraved word, once in common use, but rarely employed now, colloquially. (GROSE). Hence, 2. loose talk, chatter. Also as verb., and in various compounds and allied forms, such as BLABBER = (a) to talk idly, and (b) to put out the tongue loosely; BLABBING = inconsequent chatter and revealing of secrets; BLABBING-BOOK = a tell-tale.
[?]. M. S. Digby, 41, f 3.
| Whi presumyst thou so proudli | |
| to prophecie these thingis? | |
| and wost no more what thou BLABEREST | |
| than Balames asse. |
1402. OCCLEVE [ARBER, English Garner, iv. 54]. [The old BLABER is cut down to BLAB.]
1629. The Schoole of Good Manners. To mocke anybody by BLABBORING out the tongue is the part of waghalters and lewd boyes, not of well mannered children.
1641. MILTON, Animadversions upon the Remonstrant’s Defence, etc. But these are the nettlers, these are the BLABBING books that tell.
c. 1696. B. E., A New Dictionary of the Canting Crew, s.v. BLAB, a Sieve of Secrets, a very prating Fellow that tells all he knows.
1809. MALKIN, Gil Blas [ROUTLEDGE], 43. Of which I should never have known, but for that BLAB Inésilla. Ibid., 94. That BLAB, the sun.
1838. DICKENS, Oliver Twist, xiii. “He has not peached so far,” said the Jew … “If he means to BLAB us among his new friends, we may slap his mouth yet.”
