brabbler

brabbler

English

Etymology

brabble +‎ -er

Noun

brabbler (plural brabblers)

1. (obsolete) A clamorous, quarrelsome, noisy person; a wrangler.
   • 1593, Henry Garnet, A Treatise of Christian Renunciation, The Declaration of the Fathers of the Councell of Trent, To the Catholicke Reader, p. 6, in D. M. Rogers (ed.), English Recusant Literature, 1558-1640, Volume 47, Scolar Press, 1970,

     A third cause there is of the setting forth of this Declaration, for that after so many disputes so often made of this pointe, if our new Laye schismaticall Deuines will not yet be quiett, there can be no fitter moderatours or more authorised Vmpiers, than the President and eleuen other Prelates and Fathers of the Councell of Trent, to impose eternall silence vnto so froward and impudent brabblers.

   • c. 1596, William Shakespeare, “The Life and Death of King Iohn”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act V, scene ii]:

     We hold our time too precious to be spent
     With such a brabbler.

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for brabbler in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913)