Library / English Dictionary

MUMBLE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

A soft indistinct utterance

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

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

utterance; vocalization (the use of uttered sounds for auditory communication)

Derivation:

mumble (talk indistinctly; usually in a low voice)

 II. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Talk indistinctly; usually in a low voice

Synonyms:

maunder; mumble; mussitate; mutter

Classified under:

Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing

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

mouth; speak; talk; utter; verbalise; verbalize (express in speech)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s
Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s that CLAUSE

Sentence examples:

Sam and Sue mumble

They mumble that there was a traffic accident

Derivation:

mumble (a soft indistinct utterance)

mumbler (a person who speaks softly and indistinctly)

mumbling (indistinct enunciation)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Grind with the gums; chew without teeth and with great difficulty

Example:

the old man had no teeth left and mumbled his food

Synonyms:

gum; mumble

Classified under:

Verbs of eating and drinking

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

chew; jaw; manducate; masticate (chew (food); to bite and grind with the teeth)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Derivation:

mumbling (ineffectual chewing (as if without teeth))

Credits

 Context examples: 

She was three days without speaking; but last Tuesday she seemed rather better: she appeared as if she wanted to say something, and kept making signs to my wife and mumbling.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

"It is the way of the white man," Ebbits mumbled with an air of resignation.

(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)

Witness: He mumbled a few words, but I could only catch some allusion to a rat.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

And then, one night, Matt, reading to himself with moving lips and mumbled sounds, was startled by a low whine from White Fang.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

Alleyne, lingering behind, bethought him of the Lady Loring's counsel, and reduced the noble gift which the knight had so freely bestowed to a single penny, which the beggar with many mumbled blessings thrust away into his wallet.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

For an instant the wrinkles were smoothed away, the nose drew away from the chin, the lower lip ceased to protrude and the mouth to mumble, the dull eyes regained their fire, the drooping figure expanded.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

"That a boy should speak in council!" old Ugh-Gluk was mumbling.

(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)

The most lay silent, but some muttered to themselves, and others talked together in a strange, low, monotonous voice, their conversation coming in gushes, and then suddenly tailing off into silence, each mumbling out his own thoughts and paying little heed to the words of his neighbour.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

But Bill was stubborn, and he ate a dry breakfast washed down with mumbled curses at One Ear for the trick he had played.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

Three doors faced up upon the second floor, and it was from the central of these that the sinister sounds were issuing, sinking sometimes into a dull mumble and rising again into a shrill whine.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)