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The Collaborative International Dictionary
Mumbling

Mumbling \Mum"bling\, a. Low; indistinct; inarticulate. -- Mum"bling*ly, adv.

Mumbling

Mumble \Mum"ble\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Mumbled; p. pr. & vb. n. Mumbling.] [OE. momelen; cf. D. mompelen, mommelen, G. mummelen, Sw. mumla, Dan. mumle. Cf. Mum, a., Mumm, Mump, v.]

  1. To speak with the lips partly closed, so as to render the sounds inarticulate and imperfect; to utter words in a grumbling indistinct manner, indicating discontent or displeasure; to mutter.

    Peace, you mumbling fool.
    --Shak.

    A wrinkled hag, with age grown double, Picking dry sticks, and mumbling to herself.
    --Otway.

  2. To chew something gently with closed lips.

Wiktionary
mumbling

n. An act in which someone mumbles something vb. (present participle of mumble English)

WordNet
mumbling
  1. adj. speaking low and indistinctly; "a mumbling parson stood beside the dying man"; "muttering crowds of onlookers" [syn: muttering]

  2. n. indistinct enunciation

  3. ineffectual chewing (as if without teeth) [syn: gumming]

Usage examples of "mumbling".

By the time he finished burying the dead and Angelina finished mumbling and kneeling next to the mass grave, the sun had disappeared below the horizon and darkness settled softly over the land.

Mumbling something about seeing to Satan, Angelique bolted out the door before Brett could stop her.

All except Curly, that is, since any strange emotion or sensation just tripped his boarish temper, so that he plowed ahead filled with mumbling anger.

For a long time he lay gasping, watching sparks drift past as he slid in and out of a fractured near-sleep while Cumber sat beside him, mumbling to himself and moaning.

Imagine it: Those rigid, shock-headed figures, with corpsy complexions and fish glass eyes, occupying one side of the table in the constrained attitudes and dead fixedness that distinguish all men that are born of wax, and this wrinkled, smoldering old fire-eater occupying the other side, mumbling her prayers and munching her sausages in the ghostly stillness and shadowy indistinctness of a winter twilight.

Archmage looked at Ged and looked away, and began to speak in a tongue that Ged did not understand, mumbling as will an old old man whose wits go wandering among the years and islands.

For a moment, Gell had the terrible feeling the little wretch was lost, but soon Glert nodded, mumbling to himself.

Behind him, Bass could hear an increasing spate of whisperings and mumbling among the humbler men who made up the most of the rebel force.

Bodine drives the truck right on into what used to be the stable and they all get out, Shirley hoorahing in the moonlight, Krypton mumbling oboy, oboy through big mouthfuls of that frau bait.

Pulling his toga over his head to hide this unmanliness, Drusus wept as if his life was over, while Marius and Rutilius Rufus drew close to him and tried to soothe him, mumbling awkwardly, patting him on the back, clucking and shushing.

So whenever Tregurtha questioned him about Peria Vur and ancient Buddhist temples he fell back on silence, vertigo, and incomprehensible mumblings through lips that masked his trickery to perfection.

Those lobbies were all full of unshaved-looking Turks hanging about, waiting to sidle up behind Westies mumbling about money and girls.

Mumbling, Yule flips the tabard onto the floor near Linnix, frowning down at his dirty boots.

Sweyn rose mumbling through a mouthful of rich brewis as Wulfgar threw on his hauberk and coif and set his helm to his head.

Marc, he used these same Kalmyks to bring old Abdul to heel when His late and unlamented Holiness of Rome was making mumblings about preaching a crusade against the Empire and its then-new Emperor, who he felt showed entirely too much sympathy for England and Wales and their excommunicant king, Arthur.