gobble

1 of 2

verb (1)

gob·​ble ˈgä-bəl How to pronounce gobble (audio)
gobbled; gobbling ˈgä-b(ə-)liŋ How to pronounce gobble (audio)

transitive verb

1
: to swallow or eat greedily
2
: to take eagerly : grab
usually used with up
3
: to read rapidly or greedily
usually used with up

gobble

2 of 2

verb (2)

gobbled; gobbling ˈgä-b(ə-)liŋ How to pronounce gobble (audio)

intransitive verb

1
: to make the natural guttural noise of a male turkey
2
: to make a sound resembling the gobble of a turkey
gobble noun

Examples of gobble in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web
Verb
But hey, maybe the zoologist on Arrakis that could explain this in more detail was unwittingly gobbled up by one of their subjects. Popular Science, 6 Mar. 2024 Mortgage payments are gobbling up roughly two-thirds of median income in Los Angeles (68%) and San Diego (60%), according to ICE. Matt Egan, CNN, 2 Mar. 2024 Miss Manners recognizes the inefficiency in this, but prefers it to the implication — as the peas slowly make their way down the table, stopping at each diner — that if the person had only waited, the dish would eventually have come around, if it hadn’t been all gobbled along the way. Judith Martin, The Mercury News, 22 Feb. 2024 Foldable screens target portability, but OLED tends to gobble up battery life. Scharon Harding, Ars Technica, 14 Dec. 2023 Just look at the numbers: Revenue exceeded estimates by a whopping $2 billion as companies gobbled up all the tokens on offer. Will Daniel, Fortune, 22 Feb. 2024 Under the state propaganda campaign, the Kremlin has maintained high support for Putin and for the war in Ukraine that now defines his presidency, portraying the conflict as a battle for Russia’s survival against a venal West determined to dismember the country and gobble up its resources. Natalia Abbakumova, Washington Post, 8 Dec. 2023 How health care continues to gobble up your salary This story by Amanda Fries of the Delaware News Journal is a perfect example of how runaway health care prices directly lead to wage cuts for America’s workers. Bob Herman Reprints, STAT, 5 Feb. 2024 Why would journalists, bloggers and product reviewers continue to put their work online if an A.I. search engine is just going to gobble it up and regurgitate it? Kevin Roose, New York Times, 1 Feb. 2024
Verb
Those economic forces have driven consolidation, as hospital systems gobble up physician clinics. Markian Hawryluk, Washington Post, 1 Apr. 2023 Each one shows different angles of a simulated Will Smith (at one point, even two Will Smiths) ravenously gobbling up spaghetti. Benj Edwards, Ars Technica, 30 Mar. 2023 Property owners like Gertsch are concerned that such a bypass would gobble up some of the last agricultural land and open space left in the area and dramatically change the valley. Leia Larsen, The Salt Lake Tribune, 10 Jan. 2023 But that understates the scale of the change, because the European Central Bank will no longer gobble up huge quantities of bonds through quantitative easing. WSJ, 23 Dec. 2022 In multiple notes to investors, the analysts forecasted that several media companies—including Facebook and Instagram parent Meta, YouTube parent Alphabet, TikTok, Snap, and Pinterest—would gobble up some Twitter’s ad revenue, which totaled $4.5 billion in 2021. Jacob Carpenter, Fortune, 26 Apr. 2022 With the National Turkey Federation pledging that there are plenty of turkeys to gobble up during this year's celebration -- when more Americans will gather than in 2020 -- Biden stuck to tradition, sparing two turkeys from the dinner table this year. Molly Nagle, ABC News, 18 Nov. 2021 In the wild, the birds will gobble up anything from small mammals to woodpeckers to fish and amphibians using their excellent eyesight and sharp hearing to silently swoop down on their prey. Margaret Osborne, Smithsonian Magazine, 10 Feb. 2023 The new apartments will gobble up the equivalent of more than a decade of downtown office leasing. Dallas News, 8 July 2022

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'gobble.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

Etymology

Verb (1)

probably irregular from gob entry 1

Verb (2)

imitative

First Known Use

Verb (1)

1583, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Verb (2)

1680, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Time Traveler
The first known use of gobble was in 1583

Dictionary Entries Near gobble

Cite this Entry

“Gobble.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/gobble. Accessed 19 Mar. 2024.

Kids Definition

gobble

1 of 2 verb
gob·​ble ˈgäb-əl How to pronounce gobble (audio)
gobbled; gobbling -(ə-)liŋ How to pronounce gobble (audio)
1
: to swallow or eat greedily
2
: to take eagerly : grab
the small country was gobbled up by its neighbor

gobble

2 of 2 verb
: to make the sound of a male turkey
gobble noun

More from Merriam-Webster on gobble

Last Updated: - Updated example sentences
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