different between gabbler vs grabbler

English

Etymology

gabble +? -er

Noun

gabbler (plural gabblers)

1. One who gabbles, or prates loquaciously on a trifling subject.

Usage notes

Note the differences implied between gabblers and other prattlers in R. F. Burton's translation of The Arabian Nights (at the end of the tailor's tale).

Synonyms

• chatterer
• jabberer

Translations

References

• Webster, Noah (1828) , “gabbler”, in An American Dictionary of the English Language (Note the somewhat different definition.)
• “gabbler” in Dictionary.com Unabridged, Dictionary.com, LLC, 1995–present.
• Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., 1989.

Anagrams

• grabble

English

Etymology

grabble +? -er

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /???æbl?/, /???æbl??/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /???æbl?/, /???æbl??/

Noun

grabbler (plural grabblers)

1. A person who grabbles.
   1. A person who grabs or grasps for something.
      • 1861, Simpson Davison, The Gold Deposits of Australia, London: Longman, Green, Longman, and Roberts, 2nd edition, p. 164,^[1]

        [He] once called diggers greedy gold grabblers.

   2. (Southeastern US) One who harvests food (such as tubers or peanuts) by digging it up with the hands.
      • 1873, uncredited author, Old Times in West Tennessee, Memphis, TN: W. G. Cheeney, Chapter 8, pp. 186-187,^[2]

        My room-mate, like myself, was fond of roasted potatoes. The patch was very convenient. We had to pass through it in getting to the cabin we occupied, and he was an expert grabbler.

   3. (Southeastern US) A person who catches fish by feeling with the hand.
      • 1930, William Faulkner, As I Lay Dying, London: Chatto & Windus, 1935, “Vardaman,”^[3]

        […] Darl had to grabble for her so I knew he could catch her because he is the best grabbler even with the mules in the way […]

      • 2002, Bil Lepp, Inept, Impaired, Overwhelmed: Tall Tales from West Virginia and Beyond, Charleston, WV: Quarrier Press, “Grabbled,” p. 66,^[4]

        We were about to land our first monster catfish by hand. We were grabblers!

2. A tool for grabbling.
   1. (Southeastern US, Barbados) An implement used for grabbling (digging up) tubers.
      • 1948, Richard Chase (ed.), Grandfather Tales, Boston: Houghton Mifflin, “How Bobtail Beat the Devil,” p. 89,^[5]

        […] then Bobtail he got his bull-tongue plow and his grabbler and pretty soon there was his potatoes.

   2. (obsolete) An implement used to extract bodies from the water.
      • 1689, uncredited author, A Sad and Lamentable Account of the Strange and Unhappy Misfortune of Mr. John Temple, London,^[6]

        […] four Boats, and several Men in them, with Ropes and Grablers, searched the Thames a great part of Sunday, using all Opportunities to find the dead Body;

      • 1767, The Annual Register, cited in Notes and Queries, 15 June, 1878, p. 478,^[7]

        After diligent search had been made in the river for the child to no purpose, a twopenny loaf with a quantity of quicksilver put into it was set floating from the place where the child, it was supposed, had fallen in […] the loaf suddenly tacked about and swam across the river, and gradually sunk near the child, when both the child and loaf were immediately brought up with grabblers ready for that purpose.

Derived terms

• goober-grabbler

References