Crossword clues for drivel
drivel
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Drivel \Driv"el\, v. i. [imp. & p. p. Driveledor Drivelled; p. pr. & vb. n. Driveling or Drivelling.] [Cf. OE. dravelen, drabelen, drevelen, drivelen, to slaver, and E. drabble. Cf. Drool.]
To slaver; to let spittle drop or flow from the mouth, like a child, idiot, or dotard.
[Perh. a different word: cf. Icel. drafa to talk thick.] To be weak or foolish; to dote; as, a driveling hero; driveling love.
--Shak. Dryden.
Drivel \Driv"el\, n.
Slaver; saliva flowing from the mouth.
Inarticulate or unmeaning utterance; foolish talk; babble.
A driveler; a fool; an idiot. [Obs.]
--Sir P. Sidney.A servant; a drudge. [Obs.]
--Huloet.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
early 14c., drevel "saliva, slaver," from drivel (v.). Meaning "idiotic speech or writing" is from 1852.
Old English dreflian "to dribble or run at the nose, slobber," from Proto-Germanic *drab-, from PIE *dher- (1) "to make muddy, darken." Meaning "to speak nonsense" is mid-14c. Related: Driveling, drivelling.
Wiktionary
n. 1 senseless talk; nonsense 2 saliva, drool 3 (context obsolete English) A fool; an idiot. 4 (context obsolete English) A servant; a drudge. vb. 1 To have saliva drip from the mouth; to drool. 2 To talk nonsense; to talk senselessly. 3 To be weak or foolish; to dote.
WordNet
Wikipedia
Usage examples of "drivel".
Such drivel was the nature of my thoughts, for no one spoke in terms of gain and loss and political position, the possibility of poison and whether or not the royal cupbearer had mysteriously disappeared or the steward wore a new silver chain and a secret smile.
I suppose you are going to say she is undergoing an infusion of energy from the ectosphere or some such drivel.
Meaningless drivel for the most part, extolling the accomplishments of those who died in the ambush, while subtly polishing his own reputation.
But were there depths in this unmemoried man, depths of an abiding feeling and thinking, or had he been reduced to a sort of Humean drivel, a mere succession of unrelated impressions and events?
The social heirarchy of the town was nothing but meaningless drivel, no one cared who was who in New Orleans outside New Orleans, but there was no explaining that to an old-line New Orleanian or Zoe.
He looked at me while the chamberlains and ministers were still bowing and bleating their ceremonial drivel, and he asked me to come out and hunt with him.
Why, I doubt that even the editors of a genre magazine would publish such drivel!
You have not only the honor of being my steward, but the privilege of being the worst, most incompetent, drivelling snivelling jibbering jabbering idiot of a steward in France.
The bumpkin Binaire, delegate from VoGrance, stood up to drivel on at length about some minor question of representation chiefly relating to rural itinerants pedlars, Turos, players and their disreputable ilk.
This clucking capon and her psychopathic cousins who have dominated the public consciousness for ten years want us to pay attention to this drivel.
A collection of drivel and claptrap designed to turn women into brainless, sniveling idiots.
The very horses had caught the inspiration of the moment, champing bits in their effort to forge to the front rank, while the blood-stained slaver coated many breasts or driveled from our boots.
He knew how his elder brother driveled on and on about what he conceived of as his honor.
She could read and write, stay at home, go out at her own sweet will, no longer sitting for hours with her fingers between the leaves of a frantically interesting book, while her kin slowly driveled nonsense by the yard - waiting, waiting, yawning.
He toiled, sweated, driveled at the mouth, and now and then after a terrible contest he managed to put together one word by voicing each syllable separately, desperately—one word, one only, always the same: A-do-na-i, Adonai.