gobble

gobble¹ (ˈɡɒb^əl)

—vb (when tr, often foll by up) (often foll by up)
1.	to eat or swallow (food) hastily and in large mouthfuls
2.	informal to snatch

[C17: probably from gob¹]

gobble² (ˈɡɒb^əl)

—n
1.	the loud rapid gurgling sound made by male turkeys

—*interj*
2.	an imitation of this sound

—vb
3.	(intr) (of a turkey) to make this sound

[C17: probably of imitative origin]

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
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Etymonline

Word Origin & History

gobble

"eat fast," c.1600, probably partly echoic, partly frequentative of gob, via gobben "drink something greedily."

gobble

"turkey noise," 1680, probably imitative.

Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
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Slang Dictionary

gobble

vt.
1. To consume, usu. used with `up'. "The output spy gobbles characters out of a tty output buffer."
2. To obtain, usu. used with `down'. "I guess I'll gobble down a copy of the documentation tomorrow." See also snarf.

Jargon
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FOLDOC

Computing Dictionary

gobble definition

jargon

1. To consume, usually used with "up". "The output spy gobbles characters out of a tty output buffer."
2. To obtain, usually used with "down". "I guess I'll gobble down a copy of the documentation tomorrow."
See also snarf.
[Jargon File]
(2010-01-19)

Example sentences

Still others gain entry by disguising themselves as the sort of free-floating

molecules that our cells routinely gobble up.

Monocytes turn into macrophages in body tissues and gobble up foreign invaders.

Allowing the second biggest company to gobble up the fourth would not have

helped.

As a consequence, nimble newcomers could well gobble up the business before

established brands can get their acts together.

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Related Words

gobbledegook gorge

gorge

Matching Quote

"The learned professors have been at considerable pains in their attempts to make a distinction between tools and implements on the one hand, and machinery on the other. Nor have they arrived much of anywhere. The one is continually shading into the other. Here is an ordinary shovel used by a day labourer in a ditch; here is the same shovel with a somewhat thicker handle, containing a pneumatic attachment which is said to improve its digging power; here is a very much larger shovel with curved ends and steel teeth, hitched to an arm that is hitched to a steam engine, which can gobble up a cartload of dirt at one mouthful. Where does the tool stop and the machine begin? A grindstone is widely held to be a primitive tool; a turret lathe is widely held to be a machine. Both spin around. What is the essential difference? The employment of nonhuman power, steam, oil, gas, has been defined as the difference. Well and good. Then everything worked by human hands and legs is a tool only, and bicycles, typewriters, adding machines, sewing machines, foot lathes, clocks, hand-pumps—are not machines. Which is absurd. And what is one to do with treadmills for grinding corn, whose motive power is said by some to be the donkey, and by some the carrot in front of his nose?"

-Stuart Chase

gobble

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