GOBBLE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does gobble mean? 

• GOBBLE (noun)
  The noun GOBBLE has 1 sense:

1. the characteristic sound made by a turkey cock

  Familiarity information: GOBBLE used as a noun is very rare.

• GOBBLE (verb)
  The verb GOBBLE has 2 senses:

1. eat hastily without proper chewing

2. make a gurgling sound, characteristic of turkeys

  Familiarity information: GOBBLE used as a verb is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• GOBBLE (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

The characteristic sound made by a turkey cock

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural events

Hypernyms ("gobble" is a kind of...):

cry (the characteristic utterance of an animal)

Derivation:

gobble (make a gurgling sound, characteristic of turkeys)

• GOBBLE (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they gobble    ... he / she / it gobbles   
Past simple: gobbled   
Past participle: gobbled   
-ing form: gobbling   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Eat hastily without proper chewing

Classified under:

Verbs of eating and drinking

Synonyms:

bolt; gobble

Context example:

Don't bolt your food!

Hypernyms (to "gobble" is one way to...):

eat (take in solid food)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Sentence example:

They gobble more bread

Also:

gobble up (eat a large amount of food quickly)

Derivation:

gobbler (a hasty eater who swallows large mouthfuls)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Make a gurgling sound, characteristic of turkeys

Classified under:

Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing

Hypernyms (to "gobble" is one way to...):

emit; let loose; let out; utter (express audibly; utter sounds (not necessarily words))

Sentence frame:

Something ----s

Derivation:

gobble (the characteristic sound made by a turkey cock)

gobbler (male turkey)

 Context examples 

As the companion enters the bloated star's outer atmosphere, it gobbles up material.

(Hubble Detects Giant 'Cannonballs' Shooting from Star, NASA)

Did the monster galaxy gobble up much smaller satellite galaxies over time?

(Hubble Surveys Gigantic Galaxy, NASA)

When she is gobbled up she is hardly missed.

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Until just a few years ago, stellar black holes could only be discovered when they gobbled up gas from a companion star.

(Unpredicted stellar black hole discovered by astronomers, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

In the oceans, some carbon-containing compounds, such as sugars and proteins, are quickly gobbled up by microorganisms, while others, such as the chitin found in fish scales, are much harder to consume.

(Microbes in underground aquifers beneath deep-sea Mid-Atlantic Ridge 'chow down' on carbon, National Science Foundation)

Supermassive black holes lurk in the cores of most galaxies, and when they gobble up matter they also heat the surrounding gas and expel it from the host galaxy in powerful, dense winds.

(Stars Born in Winds from Supermassive Black Holes, ESO)

It was unfortunate that the poundman had gobbled Maria's cows.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

The supermassive black hole in the center of the quasar gobbles up an enormous amount of nearby materials, which glare and shine when they constitute an accretion disk before finally sliding down in the black hole, said Hongyan Zhou, faculty member at the University of Science and Technology of China about the universe’s brightest beacons; shining with magnitudes more luminosity than entire galaxies and the stars they contain.

(Astronomers Study How Quasars Are Powered by Accretion Disks, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)