Define the word mumble"Mumble" gcide "The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48"
Mumble \Mum"ble\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Mumbled; p. pr. & vb. n.
Mumbling.] [OE. momelen; cf. D. mompelen, mommelen, G.
mummelen, Sw. mumla, Dan. mumle. Cf. Mum, a., Mumm,
Mump, v.]
1. To speak with the lips partly closed, so as to render the
sounds inarticulate and imperfect; to utter words in a
grumbling indistinct manner, indicating discontent or
displeasure; to mutter.
[1913 Webster]
Peace, you mumbling fool. --Shak.
[1913 Webster]
A wrinkled hag, with age grown double,
Picking dry sticks, and mumbling to herself.
--Otway.
[1913 Webster]
2. To chew something gently with closed lips.
[1913 Webster]
"Mumble" gcide "The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48"
Mumble \Mum"ble\ (m[u^]m"b'l), v. t.
1. To utter with a low, inarticulate voice. --Bp. Hall.
[1913 Webster]
2. To chew or bite gently, as one without teeth.
[1913 Webster]
Gums unarmed, to mumble meat in vain. --Dryden.
[1913 Webster]
3. To suppress, or utter imperfectly.
[1913 Webster] Mumbledy peg
"mumble" wn "WordNet (r) 2.0"
mumble
v 1: talk indistinctly; usually in a low voice [syn: mutter, maunder,
mussitate]
2: grind with the gums; chew without teeth and with great
difficulty; "the old man had no teeth left and mumbled his
food" [syn: gum]
"mumble" moby-thes "Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0"
122 Moby Thesaurus words for "mumble":
aspirate, aspiration, bark, bated breath, bawl, bellow, bite,
blare, blat, blubber, boom, bray, breath, breathe, breathy voice,
buzz, cackle, champ, chant, chaw, chew, chew the cud, chew up,
chirp, chomp, coo, crow, drawl, drone, droning, exclaim,
exhalation, flute, fumble, gabble, gasp, gibber, gibbering, gnash,
gnaw, grind, growl, grunt, gum, hammer, hiss, jabber, jibber, keen,
lilt, limp, little voice, low voice, maffle, masticate, maunder,
maundering, mouth, mouthing, muddle, mumbling, munch, murmur,
murmuration, murmuring, mussitate, mutter, muttering, nibble, pant,
pipe, roar, rumble, ruminate, rumor, scream, screech, shriek,
shuffle, sibilate, sigh, sing, snap, snarl, snort, sob, soft voice,
speak, speak incoherently, splutter, sputter, squall, squawk,
squeal, stage whisper, stammer, still small voice, stumble,
stutter, susurrate, susurration, susurrus, swallow, talk, thunder,
trumpet, twang, underbreath, undertone, utter, verbalize, vocalize,
voice, wail, warble, whine, whisper, whispering, yap, yawp, yell,
yelp
"mumble" jargon "Jargon File (4.3.1, 29 Jun 2001)"
mumble interj. 1. Said when the correct response is too complicated to
enunciate, or the speaker has not thought it out. Often prefaces a
longer answer, or indicates a general reluctance to get into a long
discussion. "Don't you think that we could improve LISP performance by
using a hybrid reference-count transaction garbage collector, if the
cache is big enough and there are some extra cache bits for the
microcode to use?" "Well, mumble ... I'll have to think about it." 2.
[MIT] Expression of not-quite-articulated agreement, often used as an
informal vote of consensus in a meeting: "So, shall we dike out the
COBOL emulation?" "Mumble!" 3. Sometimes used as an expression of
disagreement (distinguished from sense 2 by tone of voice and other
cues). "I think we should buy a VAX." "Mumble!" Common variant:
`mumble frotz' (see frotz; interestingly, one does not say `mumble
frobnitz' even though `frotz' is short for `frobnitz'). 4. Yet another
metasyntactic variable, like foo. 5. When used as a question
("Mumble?") means "I didn't understand you". 6. Sometimes used in
`public' contexts on-line as a placefiller for things one is barred from
giving details about. For example, a poster with pre-released hardware
in his machine might say "Yup, my machine now has an extra 16M of
memory, thanks to the card I'm testing for Mumbleco." 7. A
conversational wild card used to designate something one doesn't want to
bother spelling out, but which can be glarked from context. Compare
blurgle. 8. [XEROX PARC] A colloquialism used to suggest that further
discussion would be fruitless.
"mumble" foldoc "The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (27 SEP 03)"
mumble
1. Said when the correct response is too complicated to
enunciate, or the speaker has not thought it out. Often
prefaces a longer answer, or indicates a general reluctance to
get into a long discussion. "Don't you think that we could
improve LISP performance by using a hybrid reference-count
transaction garbage collector, if the cache is big enough and
there are some extra cache bits for the microcode to use?"
"Well, mumble ... I'll have to think about it."
2. Yet another metasyntactic variable, like foo.
3. Sometimes used in "public" contexts on-line as a
placefiller for things one is barred from giving details
about. For example, a poster with pre-released hardware in
his machine might say "Yup, my machine now has an extra 16M of
memory, thanks to the card I'm testing for Mumbleco."
4. A conversational wild card used to designate something one
doesn't want to bother spelling out, but which can be
glarked from context. Compare blurgle.
5. [XEROX PARC] A colloquialism used to suggest that further
discussion would be fruitless.
(1997-03-27)
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