grabble
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈɡɹæbl̩/
Forms: form: grabbles
form: grabbling
form: grabbled
form: grabbled
Etymology: From grab + -le.
Senses: examples: text: 1614, John Taylor, Water-Worke: or, The Sculler’s Travels, Dedication, in All the Works of John Taylor the Water Poet, London: James Boler, 1630, reprinted for the Spenser Society, 1869,
Ile grable for Gudgeons or fish for Flounders in the Rereward of our eminent temporizing Humorists, sharpe Satyrists, or Ænigmaticall Epigramatists.
text: […] when he should come to pay his Reckoning he puts his hands into his Pockets, and keeps a grabling and a fumbling, and shaking, at last tells you he has left his Money at home; when all the company knew at first, he had no Money there, for every man can quickly find his own Money.
ref: 1689, John Selden, “Presbytery”, in Table-Talk, London: E. Smith, pages 48–49:
text: He has only a few Scratches on his Face; which, said she, I suppose he got by grabbling among the Gravel, at the bottom of the Dam, to try to find a Hole in the Ground, to hide himself from the Robbers.
ref: 1741, Samuel Richardson, Pamela, London: C. Rivington and J. Osborn, Volume 1, Letter 31, p. 202:
text: 1887, Oscar Wilde, “The Canterville Ghost,” Chapter III, in Lord Arthur Savile’s Crime & Other Stories, London: James R. Osgood, McIlvaine and Co., 1891, p. 113,
A few hollow groans from the wardrobe, he thought, would be more than sufficient, or, if that failed to wake her, he might grabble at the counterpane with palsy-twitching fingers.
text: […] we see beneath the digger’s spade
earth spill her hidden treasures out, and greedy hands
go grabbling after gold,
ref: 1959, chapter 16, in William Arrowsmith, transl., The Satyricon of Petronius, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, page 157:
synonyms: word: fumble
word: grope
word: grubble
word: root
word: rummage
word: feel around
word: fumble
word: forage
word: scramble
word: glaum
word: grabble
word: grope
word: grubble
word: poke
glosses: To search with one's hands and fingers; to attempt to grasp something.
examples: text: […] he proposes to spend the Afternoon at the Out-side of the Rock, in viewing the Sea, and looking for Oysters; so takes in his Hand his long Staff to grabble in Holes […]
ref: 1727, Peter Longueville, The Hermit, Westminster: T. Warner and B. Creake, Book 3, p. 181:
glosses: To search in a similar way using an implement.
examples: text: 1719, Thomas d'Urfey, “Willey’s Intreague” in Wit and Mirth: or Pills to Purge Melancholy, London: J. Tonson, 1876 reprint, p. 195,
When Nelly tho’ he teiz’d her,
And Grabbled her and Squeez’d her,
Cry’d, stay a little, I vow and swear I could kill ye,
Another touch I can bear ye,
text: I struggle, confused, frightened, which he mistakes for excitement, grabbling my breasts, scrubbing them in circles as he plunges his tongue.
ref: 2006, Ruth Francisco, “The Manikin”, in The Secret Memoirs of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis: A Novel, New York: St. Martin’s Press, page 299:
text: “Come here, boys, and let your gorgeous auntie grabble her hairy little monkeys!”
ref: 2008, Lisa Gabriele, chapter 4, in The Almost Archer Sisters, New York: Simon & Schuster, page 47:
synonyms: word: feel up
word: fondle
word: grope
word: canoodle
word: caress
word: chuckle
word: coax
word: cosset
word: dally
word: dandle
word: dawt
word: faddle
word: feel up
word: fond
word: fondle
word: grabble
word: grope
word: nantle
word: pet
word: pettle
word: shift
word: smuggle
word: tiddle
word: touch up
glosses: To touch (someone) with one's hands or fingers, sometimes in a sexual way.
examples: text: [H]e did so stare at the money, that I vows I thought he'd have rin away with it from the counter—so I grabbled it up, and went away.
ref: 1837, [Edward Bulwer-Lytton], chapter X, in Ernest Maltravers […] , volume I, London: Saunders and Otley, […], →OCLC, book I, page 99:
text: He grabbled one of the canteens and, unfastening its cap, swung it down by the cord.
ref: 1895, Stephen Crane, “A Mystery of Heroism”, in Maggie: A Girl of the Streets and Selected Stories, New York: Signet, published 1991, page 119:
text: “When Cave Men carry off little girls,” she said, “do they throw them over their shoulders,—or just grabble them up under their arms?”
ref: 1915, Carolyn Wells, chapter 11, in The White Alley,, Philadelphia: Lippincott:
text: “Mother,” said Tony, “you know that spanner that got into the water-butt the day I had my bandaged ankle? It’s here; we can feel it. Can I put on my bathing dress and grabble it up with my feet?”
ref: 1934, Angela Thirkell, The Demon in the House, Part 3, Chapter 5:
text: He […] pulled out one of the apples and rolled it under the fence to the horse. The horse grabbled it up with quivering lips.
ref: 1962, Meindert DeJong, chapter 7, in The Singing Hill,, New York: Harper & Row, page 110:
synonyms: grab
seize
snatch
glosses: To pick (something or someone) up hastily, roughly or clumsily.
examples: text: The flailing mob of forty-fold took turns at throwing, each trying to lasso the sinking beast as it grabbled the air in blind terror in an attempt to keep its forelegs above the surface.
ref: 1989, Nick Cave, And the Ass Saw the Angel, New York: HarperPaperbacks, published 1992, Book 2, Chapter 12, p. 228:
synonyms: word: clutch
word: grip
word: beclasp
word: begrasp
word: begrip
word: belock
word: clasp
word: clench
word: clinch
word: cling
word: clutch
word: enclasp
word: fang
word: fondle
word: glaum
word: grab
word: grabble
word: grasp
word: grip
word: hang on
word: hold on
word: hold tight
word: hold
word: nab
word: nim
word: seize
word: stranglehold
word: take
glosses: To attempt to grab; to grasp at (something).
examples: text: 1865, W. W. McCarty, “History of Captain W. W. McCarty’s Prison Life, and Southern Prisons,” in History of the 78th Regiment O.V.V.I., Zanesville, OH: Hugh Dunne, p. 302,
[…] Harry went into the potato patch and grabbled us some sweet potatoes […]
text: Going through the woods, he grabbled acorns from under the snow, thinking to fling them in the hogshead, and find out if the jays would really eat them.
ref: 1902, Martha McCulloch-Williams, chapter 9, in Next to the Ground: Chronicles of a Countryside, New York: McClure, Philips, pages 203–204:
text: 1910, J. C. Cooper (ed.), Walnut Growing in Oregon, Passenger Department, Portland, OR: Oregon Railroad and Navigation Co., Southern Pacific Company Lines in Oregon, p. 17,
One grower had a bed of hybrid black walnuts. The season was late and when the ground was ready for planting many had started to grow. He engaged some boys to grabble out the nuts from the sand beds, urging care, but many of the best were broken and injured.
text: 1924, United States Department of Labor, Child Labor and the Work of Mothers on Norfolk Truck Farms, Bureau Publication No. 30, Washington: Government Printing Office, p. 11,
The potatoes […] are then lifted out of the soil by hand—“scratched,” “graveled,” or “grabbled” out, according to the idioms of the colored workers […]
text: I said, “Uncle, how would you like to be up in that airplane?”
He said, “No, sah, I never wants to be higher than picking peaches and no lower than grabbling goobers.”
ref: 1956, William L. Crosthwait, Ernest G. Fischer, “Off to the War”, in The Last Stitch, Philadelphia: Lippincott, page 194:
synonyms: grub
glosses: To pull, lift or dig (something) (out of the ground) by searching with one's hands and fingers.
examples: text: […] set all these togither on the fire, & boile them till the wine and water be consumed, and that the flesh and bones be separated a sunder, that you may with a paire of tongs grabble out the bones from the rest, thus let it be taken off and pressed through a piece of canuas, and keepe it to your use.
ref: 1596, William Clowes, “The cure of Lues Venerea”, in A Profitable and Necessarie Booke of Obseruations, London: Thomas Dawson, page 181:
glosses: To lift (something) out in a similar way using an implement.
examples: text: You will also take many Flounders […] without a boat, in the drains and watercourses of embanked lands, and even with your hands, for the fish will often seek shelter under your feet if wading; this latter method is termed ‘Grabbling.’
ref: 1868, J. C. Wilcocks, The Sea-Fisherman, 2nd edition, London: Longmans, Green, page 125:
text: “Now watch me,” said Uncle Huse, “and I’ll show you how to grabble fish.” Slowly his hand went down among the fish. “Look,” said he, “I am going to yank out de larges’.”
ref: 1911, S. J. Kennerly, chapter 14, in The Story of Sam Tag, New York: The Cosmopolitan Press, page 149:
text: […] in the water she could go faster than a man and Darl had to grabble for her […]
ref: 1930, William Faulkner, “Vardaman”, in As I Lay Dying, New York: Vintage, published 1964, page 143:
text: I told her about grabbling—reaching under rocks at the shoals of the river and pulling out catfish.
ref: 1994, Clyde Bolton, chapter 1, in The Lost Sunshine, Montgomery, AL: Black Belt Press, page 12:
synonyms: noodle
glosses: To catch fish by reaching into the water with one's hand.
examples: text: It was just after such a day that I grabbled fifty of the best salmon I ever saw—all fresh run from the sea.
ref: 1840, uncredited author, chapter 8, in The Sportsman in Ireland, with His Summer Tour through the Highlands of Scotland, volume 2, London: Henry Colburn, page 109:
glosses: To fish on the grabble.
examples: text: […] there was instantly a dreadful confusion and uproar in the room, and such a grabbling and laughing; he could not catch the words […]
ref: 1868, Sheridan Le Fanu, “Squire Toby’s Will”, in Best Ghost Stories of J. S. Le Fanu, New York: Dover, published 1964, page 17:
text: “We are very grateful to you for coming, sir,” said Alleyn.
“Not at all, not at all,” grabbled Mr. Rattisbon. “Shocking affair. Dreadful.”
ref: 1941, Ngaio Marsh, chapter 17, in Death of a Peer, New York: Jove Books, published 1980, page 253:
text: Who the hell were all these bastards? Grabbling like a bunch of monkeys, talking gibberish.
ref: 1979, Lawrence Kamarck, chapter 14, in Informed Sources, New York: Dial, page 120:
synonyms: babble
gabble
gibber
jabber
glosses: To utter inarticulate sounds, often quickly and loudly; to say (something) quickly, idly or foolishly.
examples: text: 1584, uncredited translator (attributed to Barnabe Rich), The Famous Hystory of Herodotus, London: Thomas Marshe, Book 2,
[…] they conduct hym to the hygh way that leadeth to the temple of the goddesse Ceres, where after they haue placed hym, they leaue hym grabling in that place, and departe their waye.
text: A Loft O Soule; soare up, doe not turmoyle
Thy selfe by grabbling on a dunghill soyle:
ref: 1637, James Day, “On contempt of the World”, in A New Spring of Divine Poetrie, London: Humphry Blunden, page 40:
text: And this is the reason that we so often lie grabling under the black, and amazing thoughts that are engendred in our hearts by unbelief:
ref: 1679, John Bunyan, A Treatise of the Fear of God, London: N. Ponder, page 201:
synonyms: grovel
glosses: To lie prostrate; to sprawl on the ground.
Derived terms: grabbler