Only the Male Turkey Gobbles
To gobble is to eat fast, or to make a turkey's call. The sound is produced only by males, and it carries a long way.
To gobble is to eat hurriedly and noisily, and to make the call of a male turkey. Only males gobble: the sound is a mating and territorial call that can carry more than a kilometre, and hunters imitate it to locate birds. Females make a clucking or yelping sound instead.
- To eat fast. *Gobble your food.*
- A turkey's call. *A loud gobble.*
- To consume rapidly. *Gobbled up the market.*
- Gobbledegook — incomprehensible jargon. *Official gobbledegook.*
Word forms
| Form | Word | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Verb | gobble | Gobble it down. |
| Past | gobbled | He gobbled it. |
| Noun | gobble | A turkey's gobble. |
| Related | gobbledegook | Pure gobbledegook. |
| Related | gobbler | A wild gobbler. |
How it is used in a sentence
- Do not gobble your dinner.Eat too fast.
- Only male turkeys gobble.Ornithology.
- The report was gobbledegook.Impenetrable jargon.
Gobbledegook
- Coined in 1944 — by the American politician Maury Maverick
- The idea — official language that sounds like a turkey gobbling
- Maverick — his grandfather's surname also gave English *maverick*
- Plain English — the movement founded to oppose it
- Spelling — gobbledegook or gobbledygook, both accepted
Probably a frequentative of *gob*, meaning the mouth. The turkey sense is imitative, and *gobbledegook* was coined in 1944.
Who coined *gobbledegook*?
Maury Maverick, an American politician, in 1944, complaining about official jargon that reminded him of turkeys.
Is *maverick* connected?
Yes, by family. Samuel Maverick, a Texas rancher who did not brand his cattle, gave English the word for an independent-minded person.