garble
English
Etymology
From Middle English garbelen, from Anglo-Norman garbeler (“to sift”), from Medieval Latin garbellare (or a similar Italian word), from Arabic غَرْبَلَ (ḡarbala, “to sift”).
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ˈɡɑː(ɹ)bəl/
Audio (UK) (file)
- Rhymes: -ɑː(ɹ)bəl
Verb
garble (third-person singular simple present garbles, present participle garbling, simple past and past participle garbled)
- To pick out such parts (of a text) as may serve a purpose; to mutilate; to pervert
- to garble a quotation
- to garble an account
- 1722, Daniel Defoe, Moll Flanders, The Author's Preface:
- In a word, as the whole relation is carefully garbled of all the levity and looseness that was in it, so it all applied, and with the utmost care, to virtuous and religious uses. None can, without being guilty of manifest injustice, cast any reproach upon it, or upon our design in publishing it.
- To make false by mutilation or addition [from 17th c.]
- The editor garbled the story.
- (obsolete) To sift or bolt, to separate the fine or valuable parts of from the coarse and useless parts, or from dross or dirt [14th–19th c.]
- to garble spices
Derived terms
- garbley gook
Translations
to mutilate; to pervert
|
Noun
garble (countable and uncountable, plural garbles)
- Confused or unintelligible speech.
- 1976, Boating (volume 40, numbers 1-2, page 152)
- The FCC says it decided to attempt standardization of VHF receivers after getting "thousands of complaints" from disgruntled boatmen who found their sets brought in mostly a lot of garble and static.
- 1976, Boating (volume 40, numbers 1-2, page 152)
- (obsolete) Refuse; rubbish.
- (obsolete) mutilation
- 1808, Peter Pindar, letter to Joseph Nollekens:
- Did not the lady smile upon the garble
-
- (obsolete) Impurities separated from spices, drugs, etc.; garblings.
Further reading
- garble in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
- garble in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911
- “Garbler of spices” by Victor Mair, published by Language Log (2022-08-21)
Anagrams
- Gabler, Grable, garbel