Adjacent Words

Babbler definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

BAB'BLER, n. An idle talker; an irrational prattler; a teller of secrets.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

n
1: an obnoxious and foolish and loquacious talker [syn: chatterer, babbler, prater, chatterbox, magpie, spouter]
2: any of various insectivorous Old World birds with a loud incessant song; in some classifications considered members of the family Muscicapidae [syn: babbler, cackler]

Merriam Webster's

noun see babble

Oxford Reference Dictionary

n. 1 a chatterer. 2 a person who reveals secrets. 3 any of a large group of passerine birds with loud chattering voices.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Thrush Thrush, n. [OE. [thorn]rusche, AS. [thorn]rysce; akin to OHG. drosca, droscea, droscela, and E. throstle. Cf. Throstle.] 1. (Zo["o]l.) Any one of numerous species of singing birds belonging to Turdus and allied genera. They are noted for the sweetness of their songs. Note: Among the best-known European species are the song thrush or throstle (Turdus musicus), the missel thrush (see under Missel), the European redwing, and the blackbird. The most important American species are the wood thrush (Turdus mustelinus), Wilson's thrush (T. fuscescens), the hermit thrush (see under Hermit), Swainson's thrush (T. Alici[ae]), and the migratory thrush, or American robin (see Robin). 2. (Zo["o]l.) Any one of numerous species of singing birds more or less resembling the true thrushes in appearance or habits; as the thunderbird and the American brown thrush (or thrasher). See Brown thrush. Ant thrush. See Ant thrush, Breve, and Pitta. Babbling thrush, any one of numerous species of Asiatic timaline birds; -- called also babbler. Fruit thrush, any species of bulbul. Shrike thrush. See under Shrike. Stone thrush, the missel thrush; -- said to be so called from its marbled breast. Thrush nightingale. See Nightingale, 2. Thrush tit, any one of several species of Asiatic singing birds of the genus Cochoa. They are beautifully colored birds allied to the tits, but resembling thrushes in size and habits. Water thrush. (a) The European dipper. (b) An American warbler (Seiurus Noveboracensis).

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Babbler Bab"bler, n. 1. An idle talker; an irrational prater; a teller of secrets. Great babblers, or talkers, are not fit for trust. --L'Estrange. 2. A hound too noisy on finding a good scent. 3. (Zo["o]l.) A name given to any one of family (Timalin[ae]) of thrushlike birds, having a chattering note.

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

bab'-ler ba`al ha-lashon; the King James Version of Ec 10:11 literally, "master of the tongue"; the Revised Version (British and American) CHARMER; lapistes, the King James Version of Ecclesiasticus 20:7; the Revised Version (British and American) BRAG; spermologos; the King James Version and the Revised Version (British and American) of Ac 17:18: The latter Greek word is used of birds, such as the crow, that live by picking up small seeds (sperma, "20 seed," legein, "to gather"), and of men, for "hangers on" and "parasites" who obtained their living by picking up odds and ends off merchants' carts in harbors and markets. It carries the "suggestion of picking up refuse and scraps, and in the literature of plagiarism without the capacity to use correctly" (Ramsay). The Athenian philosophers in calling Paul a spermologos, or "ignorant plagiarist," meant that he retailed odds and ends of knowledge which he had picked up from others, without possessing himself any system of thought or skill of language--without culture. In fact it was a fairly correct description of the Athenian philosophers themselves in Paul's day.

Ramsay, Paul the Traveler and Roman Citizen, 141 ff.

T. Rees