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Blab   Listen
Blab

verb
(past & past part. blabbed; pres. part. blabbing)
1.
Divulge confidential information or secrets.  Synonyms: babble, babble out, blab out, let the cat out of the bag, peach, sing, spill the beans, talk, tattle.
2.
Speak (about unimportant matters) rapidly and incessantly.  Synonyms: blabber, chatter, clack, gabble, gibber, maunder, palaver, piffle, prate, prattle, tattle, tittle-tattle, twaddle.






WordNet 3.0 © 2010 Princeton University








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"Blab" Quotes from Famous Books



... dine with me tonight," Thorpe impulsively suggested, "and we'll go to some Music Hall afterward. There's a knock-about pantomime outfit at the Canterbury—Martinetti I think the name is—that's damned good. You get plenty of laugh, and no tiresome blab to listen to. The older I get, the more I think of people that ...
— The Market-Place • Harold Frederic

... "you do mean to peach, blab, tell tales, do you? Well, it don't matter much; you'll find he can do precious little; and it will be all the worse ...
— St. Winifred's - The World of School • Frederic W. Farrar

... intrinsically are; who made them, why they were made; how they do their function; and what their function, so huge in appearance, may in net-result amount to,—is probably known to no mortal. The unofficial mind passes by in dark wonder; not pretending to know. The official mind must not blab;—the official mind, restricted to its own square foot of territory in the vast labyrinth, is probably itself dark, and unable to blab. We see the outcome; the mechanism we do not see. How the tailors clip and sew, in that sublime sweating ...
— Latter-Day Pamphlets • Thomas Carlyle

... was sent to blab about it in every tavern in Paris town. He was sent to frighten the Red Cap out of Paris town. He was suffered to blab to you that you might set your neck in a noose and be driven ...
— The Fifth Queen • Ford Madox Ford

... you're right, though," said Mackenzie. "One doesn't blab to every stranger. Even I don't, and I'm a rough ...
— The Squire's Daughter - Being the First Book in the Chronicles of the Clintons • Archibald Marshall

... Alexandria Bay that he did not want to go to. Why should he be so careful? The mill owner was clearly a good American, but the scout had no right to let any outsider know his business. This mill owner might be safe, but he might be unwise and blab to some one who was ...
— Rolf In The Woods • Ernest Thompson Seton

... know too much already, and if I followed my hunch, I'd scrag you now, to play safe. Dead men don't blab, as a rule—though one may have, last night. I came here to be generous, to give you a last chance. I've fought tooth and nail, myself, for my place at the top, and I like a game scrapper, even if he is on the wrong side. You've ...
— The Crevice • William John Burns and Isabel Ostrander

... and pa may say you are angelic and perfect; but where's the use of it, if nobody else can be made to see it? I tried my best to catch the young men in my net. But, provoking things, they wouldn't be caught. Between ourselves—mind, don't blab it out—young men are the greatest noodles that were ever put upon the face of the earth. I never yet saw one that could be depended upon to stand by. I am sure, as you know, no one ever stood by me—when there was a parson at hand. At fourteen I didn't much care where they stood, ...
— Punchinello, Vol. 1, No. 7, May 14, 1870 • Various

... Peter, rather touched by this devotion; "it's a forlorn hope, and I'm going to lead it. All I ask is that if Mother asks where I am, you won't blab." ...
— The Railway Children • E. Nesbit

... with babies," sneered Christopher in reply. "You'd fall down, most likely, and scratch your knees on the briers, and then you'd run straight home to blab to Fletcher." ...
— The Deliverance; A Romance of the Virginia Tobacco Fields • Ellen Glasgow

... all about the diamond," said the seaman. "Oh, yes. Well, you can do that now if you feel so inclined. They know all about that, bless you, and, if they were had, they'd blab ...
— The Skipper's Wooing, and The Brown Man's Servant • W. W. Jacobs

... said Roy. "Amber Lake and I don't blab. There'll be a nine days' mystery over his disappearance. Then his lot will set up some other tin god—and promptly forget all ...
— Far to Seek - A Romance of England and India • Maud Diver

... and she herself also, are a good deal to me. As to blabbing, I never blab; I saw her, she spoke to me; I slept at the lodge; I ...
— The Honorable Miss - A Story of an Old-Fashioned Town • L. T. Meade

... "Good Lord, no! We are not going to advertise this mess. You will spoil it all. I don't propose to be arrested and put in jail, and a doctor would blab it all. ...
— The Port of Missing Men • Meredith Nicholson

... are," he said to himself, as he went down the hill again. "But I warn't going to blab. What a fuss people do make about a bit o' smuggling! How pretty she looks!" and he stopped short to admire her— the she being the White Hawk, which lay motionless on the calm sea. "Wish I could sail aboard a boat like that, and be dressed like that young chap ...
— Cutlass and Cudgel • George Manville Fenn

... Jess has tended to things for me. You know how women are when they take charge. If that check's in the house she's liable to find it. If I deposit it, in a little town like this, people will find it out, and somebody'll blab to her. You send it to me after the trial, when I'm ready to explain to the girl without ruinin' your prospect of winnin', an' ...
— Frank of Freedom Hill • Samuel A. Derieux

... first of these, Secrecy: it is indeed the virtue of a confessor. And assuredly the secret man heareth many confessions; for who will open himself to a blab or a babbler? But if a man be thought secret, it inviteth discovery, as the more close air sucketh in the more open; and as in confession the revealing is not for worldly use, but for the ease of a man's heart, so secret men come to the knowledge ...
— Library Of The World's Best Literature, Ancient And Modern, Vol 3 • Various

... "An' have somebody come along an' find him! Like as not he'd hang on long enough to blab all he knows, an' then where would we be? Where would we be even if somebody run acrost his body? I ain't takin' no chances like that, I'll ...
— Shoe-Bar Stratton • Joseph Bushnell Ames

... for Rousseau, like Topsy in the novel, had a taste for "'fessing" offences that he had never committed rather than not "'fess" at all. Montaigne strikes no such attitudes; he does not pose, he does not so much confess as blab. His life stands before the reader "as in a picture." We learn that his childhood was a happier one than usually fell to the lot of children in that age when there was but little honey smeared on the cup of learning. We know that his father taught him Greek in a kind of sport or game, that ...
— Lost Leaders • Andrew Lang

... "and I must be off, or else I shall lose my train. By the way, when you come alongside do not make any sign that you have met me before. It is just as well that none of my crew should know that it is a planned thing, for if we ever happen to put in here again they might blab about it, and it is just as well not to give them the chance. Good-by, my lad; I hope that all will go well. But, you know, you are doing a very risky thing; for the assisting a runaway slave to escape is about as serious an offense as you can commit in these parts. You might ...
— With Lee in Virginia - A Story of the American Civil War • G. A. Henty

... it back again to-night, and make off up the road with it. He went off a-grinnin' over the slick way he'd fooled you, and I jes' had to come and tell, 'cause you've been so good to me. I'll never forget the little kid's givin' me the coat off his own back, if I live to be a hundred. Now don't blab on me, or the ...
— Two Little Knights of Kentucky • Annie Fellows Johnston

... destination by Horace Mann (April 4). Again, he has been seen in disguise, walking into a gate of Paris (April 11). {52d} On April 14, Walton, from Florence, writes that James has had news of his son, is much excited, and is sending Fitzmorris to join him. The Pope knows and is sure to blab. {52e} On May 3, Yorke mentions a rumour, often revived, that the Prince is dead. On May 9, the Jacobites in Paris show a letter from Oxford inviting Charles to the opening of the Radcliffe, 'where ...
— Pickle the Spy • Andrew Lang

... drink to other people. I was ashamed of you before; and I'm worse ashamed of you now, I wont have you for a brother. Heaven gave you to me; but I return the blessing without thanks. So be easy: I shant blab. [He turns his back on ...
— The Shewing-up of Blanco Posnet • George Bernard Shaw

... orders? Really, Skipper George didn't know. Tommy Bull knew all about that; and Tommy Bull had clerked in these waters long enough to keep the firm's business to himself. Tommy Bull was closemouthed; he wouldn't be likely to blab Sir Archibald's orders in every harbour of the coast or whisper them in the ear of a rival ...
— Billy Topsail & Company - A Story for Boys • Norman Duncan

... go and blab on us," said the man, angrily. "At least the girl will. She won't promise to keep her secret. I have no fears for the man; I ...
— Opening a Chestnut Burr • Edward Payson Roe

... will not happen to hear of them. We need not blab; and the folk who drink the waters go their way, as ...
— The Settlers at Home • Harriet Martineau

... been gathering round Reginald, admiring his spirit in confronting the tall boy, now drew back, and the words "tell-tale!" "blab!" "sneak!" were distinctly heard. And Reginald found himself standing alone, deserted by those who had drawn near in sympathy with him, for Thompson was ...
— Happy Days for Boys and Girls • Various

... dram" Holding the Surgeon's flask with a smile To a young scapegrace from the glen. "O yes!" he eagerly replied, "And thank you, Colonel, but—any guile? For if you think we'll blab—why, then You don't know Mosby or ...
— Battle-Pieces and Aspects of the War • Herman Melville

... heedless stranger, from this spot accurst, Where rests in Satan an offender first In point of greatness, as in point of time, Of new-school rascals who proclaim their crime. Skilled with a frank loquacity to blab The dark arcana of each mighty grab, And famed for lying from his early youth, He sinned secure behind a veil of truth. Some lock their lips upon their deeds; some write A damning record and conceal from sight; Some, with a lust of speaking, die to quell it. His way to keep a secret ...
— Shapes of Clay • Ambrose Bierce

... gathered around the fireplace and Aunt Lindie had pointed out the first one to tell a riddle, than Josie popped right up to give the answer. It didn't take Aunt Lindie a second to put her in her place. "Josie, the way we always told riddles in my day was not for one to blab out the answer, but to let the one who gives it out to a certain one, wait until that one answers, or tries to. Your ...
— Blue Ridge Country • Jean Thomas

... description had been noticed getting out of the 5.13 train; then where were we? We might have to interview every cabman in the town. As likely as not, by the time we did find the kid, it wouldn't be worth the trouble of unpacking. Still, it wasn't my cue to blab my thoughts. The father, poor fellow, was feeling, I take it, just about as bad as he wanted to feel. My business was to put hope into him; so when he asked me for about the twentieth time if I thought as he would ever see his child alive again, ...
— The Observations of Henry • Jerome K. Jerome

... And if my death might make this Iland happy, And proue the Period of their Tyrannie, I would expend it with all willingnesse. But mine is made the Prologue to their Play: For thousands more, that yet suspect no perill, Will not conclude their plotted Tragedie. Beaufords red sparkling eyes blab his hearts mallice, And Suffolks cloudie Brow his stormie hate; Sharpe Buckingham vnburthens with his tongue, The enuious Load that lyes vpon his heart: And dogged Yorke, that reaches at the Moone, Whose ouer-weening Arme I haue pluckt back, By false accuse doth leuell at my Life. And you, ...
— The First Folio [35 Plays] • William Shakespeare

... see by your face that you intend to talk about me. Don't do that, my man: it would be foolish of you. Here's a thousand-franc note for you. Only, if you blab, I'll make you repent it. That's all I ...
— The Teeth of the Tiger • Maurice Leblanc

... me, but no money except what I had tucked in the skin of that portmanteau and a few papers connected with my family at home. When a man lives the roving kind of life I have, he learns to keep all that he cares for under his own hat, and isn't apt to blab to friends. But it got out in some way on the voyage that I had money, and as there was a mixed lot of 'Sydney ducks' and 'ticket of leave men' on board, it seems they hatched a nice little plot to waylay me on the wharf on landing, rob me, and drop me into deep water. To make ...
— Trent's Trust and Other Stories • Bret Harte

... was a fool to blab so glibly. I would have carried the jest farther. But he stood on the punctilio and would not win you ...
— If I Were King • Justin Huntly McCarthy

... io non parlo" ("I am a man, I know how to hold my tongue") and he would rather die than betray an accomplice who is his friend and probably his compare. Nor need the criminal fear that the victim or anyone in the secret whether accomplice or not, will blab. A man with a wound on his face, made obviously by a knife, will swear to the police that in drawing a cork he fell and cut himself with the bottle. He does not intend his assailant to go unpunished, but he will ...
— Castellinaria - and Other Sicilian Diversions • Henry Festing Jones

... haste, Blanche, blab it out, and come away, For we have enough to do all this whole day; Why, Blanche, blab it out, wilt thou not come, And knowest what business there is to be done? If thou may be set with the pot at thy nose, Thou ...
— A Select Collection of Old English Plays, Vol. II • Robert Dodsley

... my boy; I warned you once before not to blab my business to your mother to make trouble ...
— Watch Yourself Go By • Al. G. Field

... accosts The other with a sigh, whose very breath Would break a heart, and—kind souls—love in death. A thick wood clouds their walks, where day scarce peeps, And on each hand cypress and poppy sleeps; The drowsy rivers slumber, and springs there Blab not, but softly melt into a tear; A sickly dull air fans them, which can have, When most in force, scarce breath to build a wave. On either bank through the still shades appear A scene of pensive flow'rs, whose bosoms wear Drops of a lover's blood, the emblem'd truths ...
— Poems of Henry Vaughan, Silurist, Volume II • Henry Vaughan

... do't with Modesty and Silence: For Virtue's but a Name kept free from Scandal, Which the most base of Women best preserve, Since Jilting and Hypocrisy cheat the World best. —But we both love, and who shall blab the ...
— The Works of Aphra Behn, Vol. II • Aphra Behn

... sure, unless you blab in one of these blitherin' fits. What does that kid know? Nothin'. He's found our gold, an' he's hid it away. He wants to keep it, an' you know what a stubborn devil he is. This is just a try on, an' they'll get nothin' out o' Dick Haddon. If they do they get the gold, an' we're all right if ...
— The Gold-Stealers - A Story of Waddy • Edward Dyson

... the bother of talk about my lord—ignorant gabble of the countryside I call it. Lord, if they only knew what I know, then, indeed—but enough. Marshal Gilles is a mighty scholar as well, and hath Henriet the clerk—a weak, bleating ass that will some day blab if my master permit me not to slice his gizzard in time—he hath him up to read aloud Latin by the mile, all out of the books called Suetonius and Tacitus—such high-flavoured tales and full of—well, of things such ...
— The Black Douglas • S. R. Crockett

... bet your mother wouldn't forget about Ernest if your father was ill. I am the only boy in the family and I know I could help, if they'd only trust me. It's being left out that hurts, Chicken Little. But forget everything I've said. I didn't mean to blab this way. I s'pose Mother's right—I can't even keep my own affairs to myself." Sherm ...
— Chicken Little Jane on the Big John • Lily Munsell Ritchie

... any man who ever lived upon this earth. I shall not try to rob you of eight or ten thousand ducats at one go, but shall rather seek to earn them by my industry. I entered the service of your Excellency as sculptor, goldsmith, and stamper of coin; but to blab about my neighbour's private matters,—never! What I am now telling you I say in self-defence; I do not want my fee for information. [3] If I speak out in the presence of so many worthy fellows as are here, it is because I do not wish your Excellency ...
— The Autobiography of Benvenuto Cellini • Benvenuto Cellini

... you like it better. A genuine bargain. But we have talked enough, 'mio caro'; you deceive yourselves if you think you are going to make me blab. No, indeed! I am not the one to allow myself to become entangled. I am now as mute ...
— Gerfaut, Complete • Charles de Bernard

... Mr. Harum had had some trouble with his cashier and wished to replace him, and that he would prefer some one from out of the village who wouldn't know every man, woman, and child in the whole region, and "blab everything right and left." "I should want," wrote Mr. Harum, "to have the young man know something about bookkeeping and so on, but I should not insist upon his having been through a trainer's hands. In fact, I would rather break him in myself, and if he's willing ...
— David Harum - A Story of American Life • Edward Noyes Westcott

... this must be considered in both directions That he is not to blab official secrets is so obvious that it need not be spoken of. Such blabbing is so negligent and dishonorable that we must consider it intrinsically impossible. But it not infrequently happens that some indications are dropped or persuaded out of a criminal Judge, ...
— Robin Hood • J. Walker McSpadden

... just like this," returned Tip. "After I'd done it, if I had hurt Prescott, then I was goin' to go to your son an' scare 'im good an' proper by threatenin' to blab that he had hired me to use them brickbats. That'd been good fer all his spendin' money, ...
— The High School Pitcher - Dick & Co. on the Gridley Diamond • H. Irving Hancock

... you blab about what I wrote you last week? Father sends me a roast about going to a theatre and not going to a Methodist church. You know a fellow should not be expected to work all the time, but Father's old-fashioned ...
— The Mermaid of Druid Lake and Other Stories • Charles Weathers Bump

... in them, and human bones; but, beyond this, all is surmise and uncertainty. Often, when yet a boy, and engaged in fishing in the King's Burn, have we mounted these pyramids, and felt that we were standing on holy ground. "Oh," thought we, "that some courteous cairn would blab it out what 'tis they are!" But the cairns were silent; and hence the necessity we are under of professing our ignorance of what they refused to divulge. But there is a large opening in the side of one of these cairns, respecting which tradition has preserved ...
— Wilson's Tales of the Borders and of Scotland Volume 17 • Alexander Leighton

... And at his parture, Bound my secrecy, By his affectious love, not to disclose it: But care of him, and pity of your age, Makes my tongue blab ...
— 2. Mucedorus • William Shakespeare [Apocrypha]

... yees can't talk better sinse nor that, ye'd bist put a stopper on yer blab. The idaa of me master harming any one is too imposterous to be intertained by a fraa and inlightened people—a fraa and inlightened people, as I used to spell out in the newspapers at home. But whisht! Ye are a savage, ...
— The Lost Trail - I • Edward S. Ellis

... Hetty was completely carried away by the sight of her suffering, and could no longer contain her secret. She forgot Mark's warning looks, and his sovereign contempt, always freely expressed, for those who would blab; and she said in a ...
— Hetty Gray - Nobody's Bairn • Rosa Mulholland

... o'clock. But whatever happens I shan't tell her anything again and I don't care about the old diary any more. Hella says: Don't be stupid; I ought just to go on writing; but another time I should be careful not to lose anything, and besides I should not blab everything to Mother and Father. She says she no longer tells her mother anything since that time in the summer when her mother gave her a box on the ear because that other girl had told her all about everything. It's quite ...
— A Young Girl's Diary • An Anonymous Young Girl

... seen worse things done on the quiet," maintained Carlier, with a hoarse laugh. "Trust him! He won't thank you if you blab. He is no better than you or me. Who will talk if we hold our tongues? There ...
— Tales of Unrest • Joseph Conrad

... I do not. But in any case, he must not blab of us. Therefore he stays here and brushes my clothes. Marry, they ...
— Helmet of Navarre • Bertha Runkle

... here once. Tell you sumpum. Now don't you go and blab it out, now will you? Hope to die? Well.... Now, no kiddin'. Cross your heart? Well.... Ah, you will, too. I know you. You go and tattle everything you hear.... Well.... Cheese it! Here comes somebody. Make out we're talkin' about ...
— Back Home • Eugene Wood

... would have sent it. Anne had a cold and a swelled face. She and Eleanor were going to France, and she persuaded Fanny to go with them. To make a long tale short, they shut her up in a convent lest she should blab the great secret, 'James ...
— Historical Mysteries • Andrew Lang

... man who first states truths; and all truths are unpleasant on their first presentation. That which is uncommon is offensive. "Who ever heard anything like that before?" ask the literary and philosophic hill tribes in fierce indignation. Says James Russell Lowell, "I blab unpleasant truths, you see, that none may need to state them ...
— Little Journeys To The Homes Of Great Teachers • Elbert Hubbard

... Catholic, but may lack some persuasion to join us. Tresham—well, I count he may be trusted. His money-bags be heavy, though his character is but light. I will make certain that he will not blab nor tattle—that is the thing most to be feared. Know you not Frank Tresham?—my cousin, and my ...
— It Might Have Been - The Story of the Gunpowder Plot • Emily Sarah Holt

... From a grimy wallet he extracted a limp little volume which proved to be a damaged copy of a work entitled Sacred Songs and Solos. "Here! Take that in your right hand and put your left hand on my pole, and say after me. 'I swear no' to blab what is telled me in secret, and to be swift and sure in obeyin' orders, s'help me God!' ...
— Huntingtower • John Buchan

... what you blab about I believe still less. You are provoked with Ingeborg because at times she makes fun of you, and therefore you begrudge her this attractive marriage; yes, yes, I know ...
— Early Plays - Catiline, The Warrior's Barrow, Olaf Liljekrans • Henrik Ibsen

... get him if you don't accept that nomination. You're going to get him, blab-mouth, mob-rule, mortification, and merry hell—the whole bagful! Do you want that for this ...
— The Ramrodders - A Novel • Holman Day

... his men aside. He recognized that having compacted with Jase they could not ignore him. In a whisper he ventured the suggestion, "Mebby Jase hes done come ter grief. Mebby we'd better kill ther gal atter all an' git away. But if we does we've got ter git Jase afore he has time ter blab ...
— A Pagan of the Hills • Charles Neville Buck

... away with that prying wench of a Deliverance Dobbins!" ejaculated M. Picot, stamping about. "Oh, I'll cure her fanciful fits! Pish! Pish! That frump and her fits! Bad blood, Ramsay; low-bred, low-bred! 'Tis ever the way of her kind to blab of aches and stuffed stomachs that were well if left empty. An she come prying into my chemicals, taking fits when she's caught, I'll mix her a pill o' Deliverance!" And M. Picot laughed heartily ...
— Heralds of Empire - Being the Story of One Ramsay Stanhope, Lieutenant to Pierre Radisson in the Northern Fur Trade • Agnes C. Laut

... with a movement of impatience. "Did you think I'd bring her to Burchester for all the county to blab about? She's under my protection—and she's safe." He spoke with a certain fierceness, and in a moment was pacing the room, his face arrogantly lifted. "I know very well the sort of story that's going round, but if ...
— Charles Rex • Ethel M. Dell

... children, simpletons, not criminals! Why, half a hundred people meeting for such an object—what an idea! Three would be too many, and then they want to have more faith in one another than in themselves! One has only to blab in his cups and it all collapses. Simpletons! They engaged untrustworthy people to change the notes—what a thing to trust to a casual stranger! Well, let us suppose that these simpletons succeed and each makes a million, and what follows for the rest of their lives? ...
— Crime and Punishment • Fyodor Dostoyevsky

... believe that Coleman would blab this secret (quite unnecessarily, for this proof of Oates's perjury could not be, and was not, publicly adduced), unless Godfrey was already deep in the Catholic intrigues. He may have been, judging by his relations with Coleman. If Godfrey was not himself engaged ...
— The Valet's Tragedy and Other Stories • Andrew Lang

... come out, the young man accompanied us a little distance, and then, drawing Master Simon aside into a green lane, they walked and talked together for nearly half an hour. Master Simon, who has the usual propensity of confidants to blab every thing to the next friend they meet with, let me know that there was a love affair in question; the young fellow having been smitten with the charms of Phoebe Wilkins, the pretty niece of the housekeeper at the Hall. Like most other love concerns, it had brought ...
— Bracebridge Hall, or The Humorists • Washington Irving

... don't blab on us," was his thought. "If he does there is no telling what the captain will do. He's altogether too strict for comfort ...
— The Rover Boys in Camp - or, The Rivals of Pine Island • Edward Stratemeyer

... Now for them that so say there is forgiveness, for that 'tis not to be believed but that they have just cause; seeing that the friars are good folk, and eschew hardship for the love of God, and grind intermittently, and never blab; and, were they not all a trifle malodorous, intercourse with them would be much more agreeable. Nevertheless, I acknowledge that the things of this world have no stability, but are ever undergoing change; and this may have befallen my ...
— The Decameron, Vol. II. • Giovanni Boccaccio

... glove in so solemn a way," he went on, "it would have been ill done of me to blab to you about it. Do you see ...
— Tommy and Grizel • J.M. Barrie

... quiet, old man, and you shall get out too. If you blab, they'll flog the life out of me, but I ...
— Best Russian Short Stories • Various

... Jean," said the man, as he let go his hold of the innkeeper, "just go home and keep your tongue quiet—it will be best for you. I shall have an eye on you, and if you blab about what you have seen, why you will stand a good chance of sharing the same fate as your friends yonder. They have been arrested under the king's lettre de cachet, and if you meddle in the matter you ...
— The King's Warrant - A Story of Old and New France • Alfred H. Engelbach

... Parson, 'twas no fault of mine; He takes occasion, where there none was given. I will not blab unto the world, my love I owe to him, and shall ...
— A Select Collection of Old English Plays, Vol. VIII (4th edition) • Various

... think him cut out from the poisonous yew, Beneath whose ill shade no plant ever grew. Some say he's a birch, a thought very odd; For none but a dunce would come under his rod. But I'll tell the secret; and pray do not blab: He is an old stump, cut out of a crab; And England has put this crab to a hard use, To cudgel our bones, and for drink give us ver-juice; And therefore his witnesses justly may boast, That none are more properly knights of the post, But here Mr. Wood ...
— Poems (Volume II.) • Jonathan Swift

... brow, "I wouldn't repeat this story to Mr. Lyndon Rushcroft, father of yours truly. He would blab it all over the county. The greatest press stuff in the world. Listen to it: 'Lyndon Rushcroft, the celebrated actor, takes part in the rescue of a beautiful heiress who falls into the hands of So and So, the king of kidnappers.' That's only a starter. So ...
— Green Fancy • George Barr McCutcheon

... said one anxiously, "what are you about?" "Oh! he's made me all overish." "Well if you'd been three months away from your old man as I have, there would be some excuse." "Never mind,—you won't blab,—you stand there, and call if you see any one." "The grave-digger will catch you." "No I saw him right over by the church." "Come away." "No,—you go and watch." And so we talked for a few seconds, but I never put my ...
— My Secret Life, Volumes I. to III. - 1888 Edition • Anonymous

... in comparison of the pleasure that a woman has in connexion with a man. Whereof I have more than once been minded to make experiment with this mute, no other man being available. Nor, indeed, could one find any man in the whole world so meet therefor; seeing that he could not blab if he would; thou seest that he is but a dull clownish lad, whose size has increased out of all proportion to his sense; wherefore I would fain hear what thou hast to say to it." "Alas!" said the other, "what is't thou sayst? ...
— The Decameron, Volume I • Giovanni Boccaccio

... made you promise me never to let it out by Word or Deed, having your Welfare in my Mind; and you most solemnly did promise it going from this Door. J have not named either that Question or your coming marriage to your Father, as he would blab ...
— Tess of the d'Urbervilles - A Pure Woman • Thomas Hardy

... to croak her," he said. "Dey ain't no udder way. If dey finds her alive she'll blab sure, an' dey won't be no trouble 'bout gettin' ...
— The Mucker • Edgar Rice Burroughs

... Why not? It was a small matter. He went off to Boston—business trip, he said. I could make a good guess at the nature of the business. Didn't I know his ways? But I wouldn't blab; he owned me body and soul. I was afraid of him. His soft voice, his slick ways, and what he could do to me ...
— The Blood Ship • Norman Springer

... issuing from the hut at the moment, "don't you dare to go an' tempt him again like that. Our hands are black enough already; don't you try to make them red, else I'll blab!" ...
— Freaks on the Fells - Three Months' Rustication • R.M. Ballantyne

... asham'd to kiss? then wink again, And I will wink; so shall the day seem night; Love keeps his revels where there are but twain; Be bold to play, our sport is not in sight: 124 These blue-vein'd violets whereon we lean Never can blab, nor ...
— Venus and Adonis • William Shakespeare

... shooting, and I'm not a bit ashamed of it; but, by the eternal God, if you open your lips to a soul, I'll shoot you like a dog or a cannibal. Remember that, Sonny, and say it quietly over to yourself the first time you fee that you want to blab. ...
— Kafir Stories - Seven Short Stories • William Charles Scully

... only told her to see how she'd stare, and then I drugged her so she can't blab, out of that bottle I've seen you use, sir (with a cunning leer), more nor once. She wants to come with us, sir, she's so gone ...
— A Heart-Song of To-day • Annie Gregg Savigny

... with the morning's sun. So it was with Mr. Pacey. Then he began to think how to get out of it. Should he tell Mr. Sponge candidly the state of his finances, and trust to his generosity for letting him off? Was Mr. Sponge a likely man to do it? He thought he was. But, then, would he blab? He thought he would, and that would blow him among those by whom he wished to be thought knowing, a man not to be done. Altogether he was very much perplexed: seventy pounds was a vast of money; and then there was his watch gone, too! a hundred and more altogether. He ...
— Mr. Sponge's Sporting Tour • R. S. Surtees

... too) to get a share in the Assurance office that he's President of, I've made—never mind what I've made,' said Jonas, seeming to recover all at once his usual caution. 'You know me pretty well, and I don't blab about such things. But, Ecod, I've made ...
— Life And Adventures Of Martin Chuzzlewit • Charles Dickens

... gentleman's room; go up and ask whether he called. Perhaps he'll order something when he finds anybody stirring in the house to dress it. Now don't commit any of your usual blunders, by telling him the fire's out, and the fowls alive. And if he should order mutton, don't blab out that we have none. The butcher, I know, killed a sheep just before I went to bed, and he never refuses to cut it up warm when I desire it. Go, remember there's all sorts of mutton and fowls; go, open the door with, Gentlemen, d'ye call? and if they say nothing, ...
— The History of Tom Jones, a foundling • Henry Fielding

... ideas in her head," cried Patricia stabbing her hat-pins into her hat to secure it on the hanger. "Of course, she'll be sorry for part of it, but right is right, and justice ought to be done. But there, I'll blab it all myself if I don't look out. Hurry up, Judy, let's get the cocoa stewing ...
— Miss Pat at School • Pemberton Ginther

... me to accompany the king," whispered John Heywood. "He is afraid the king might blab out to me a little of that diabolical work which they will commence at midnight. Well, I call the devil, as well as the king, my brother, and with his help I too will be in the green-room at midnight. Ah, the queen is retiring; and there is the Duke of Norfolk leaving ...
— Henry VIII And His Court • Louise Muhlbach

... would be to win the love of others, so that the afflictions which oppress our own hearts might oppress theirs as well. Since that is attended with some difficulty, we often choose the shorter way, and blab out our burden of woe to people who do not care, and listen with curiosity, but without sympathy, and much ...
— The Essays of Arthur Schopenhauer; The Art of Controversy • Arthur Schopenhauer

... the Corporal, after parrying many of these,—"Why, look you, I'm an old fool, Catherine, and I must blab. That man has been the best friend I ever had, and so I was quiet; but I can't keep it in any longer,—no, hang me if I can! It's my belief he's acting like a rascal by you: he deceives you, Catherine; he's a scoundrel, Mrs. Hall, that's ...
— Catherine: A Story • William Makepeace Thackeray

... you,' said the man, growing more excited, and leaning further across the table; 'I'll tell you, because I knows you for an eddicated man, and won't blab. S'pose yer thinks, like the rest of the world, that the chaps wot smears, for it ain't drawing, the pavement with bits of bacon, a ship on fire, and the regulation oysters, does them out of their own 'eads?' Hubert nodded. 'I'm not surprised that you do, all ...
— Vain Fortune • George Moore

... particular care not to blab any of the Secrets she discloses to you: for while her Mistress hath no Suspicion of her Confidant, she will be able to lay her entirely ...
— The Lovers Assistant, or, New Art of Love • Henry Fielding

... helpless wrath in which he now looked after the party was a sensation that he had experienced only a few times in his life. Pinkey had warned him that at the first openly hostile act he would "blab" the story of the Skull Creek episode far and wide. He had hit Canby in his most vulnerable spot, for ridicule was something which he found it impossible to endure, and he could well appreciate the glee with which his many enemies would listen to ...
— The Dude Wrangler • Caroline Lockhart

... coming again into her drained lips and cheeks, the breath freer in her throat. Her secret had not been torn from her fearful heart; she had deepened the cloud that hung over Joe Newbolt's head. "Let him blab now," said she in her inner satisfaction. A man might say anything against a woman to save his neck; she was wise enough and deep enough, for all her shallowness, to know that people were quick to understand a thing ...
— The Bondboy • George W. (George Washington) Ogden

... are circumstances that force one to endure family disgrace rather than proclaim the truth aloud. Lebyadkin will not blab, madam!" ...
— The Possessed - or, The Devils • Fyodor Dostoyevsky

... in which we reside, the thing is otherwise. The institution of mutes is unknown to us. The lips of our pages have never been inured to the wholesome discipline of the padlock. They are as loquacious, and blab as much as other men. You know, my lord, that I am fond of illustrating the principles I lay down by the recital of facts. The last, and indeed the only time that I ever entered the metropolis, I remember, ...
— Four Early Pamphlets • William Godwin

... Avenel could count on Mr. Morgan's silence as to the true cause of Nora's death. And Mr. Dale, why should be reveal the dishonour of a family? That very day, or the next at furthest, she could induce her husband to absent himself, lest he should blab out the tale while his sorrow was greater than his pride. She alone would then stay in the house of death until she could feel assured that all else were hushed into prudence. Ay, she felt, that with due precautions, the name was still safe. And ...
— My Novel, Complete • Edward Bulwer-Lytton

... Bent to the very earth, here preceding what follows, Terrified with myself that I have dared to open my mouth, Aware now, that, amid all the blab whose echoes recoil upon me, I have not once had the least idea who or what I am, But that before all my insolent poems the real me still stands untouched, untold, altogether unreached, Withdrawn ...
— Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 5, No. 30, April, 1860 • Various

... her first child. To be sure, the other servants will know there's a lady in the house, but to that they are accustomed; I don't set up for a Joseph. They need know no more, unless you choose to blab it out. Well, then, supposing that at the end of a few days, more or less, without any rudeness on my part, a young woman, after seeing a few jewels, and fine dresses, and a pretty house, and being made very comfortable, and being convinced that her grandfather shall be ...
— Night and Morning, Volume 5 • Edward Bulwer Lytton

... her face gravely with grave eyes. "The ABC of my business," he said presently, "is knowing who to trust. I know you won't blab, Miss Barbara, 'r else I wouldn't tell you. There's a society in New York City for putting down grafts and crimes. There's a rich man back of it. And there's more kinds o' people working for it than you'd guess in a year. There's even ...
— The Penalty • Gouverneur Morris

... they may begin upon a new score. But what is more foolish than those, or rather more happy, who daily reciting those seven verses of the Psalms promise to themselves more than the top of felicity? Which magical verses some devil or other, a merry one without doubt but more a blab of his tongue than crafty, is believed to have discovered to St. Bernard, but not without a trick. And these are so foolish that I am half ashamed of them myself, and yet they are approved, and that not only by the common people ...
— The Praise of Folly • Desiderius Erasmus

... across the mountains, and chuckles to himself like an old hen. 'Oh, I know what you're after,' he cackles at me, shrewd enough to hit the nail square, too, Mark. 'And,' he rambles on, 'you've come to the right man. But am I goin' to blab now, havin' kept a shut mouth all these years?' And then he goes on, his rheumy-red eyes blinking, to proclaim that he is feeling a whole lot stronger these days, that he is getting his second wind, so ...
— The Everlasting Whisper • Jackson Gregory

... business. I can't make out how, but he did. And the young fool all along thought it was Beamish's he was in a row about. But Riddell wouldn't have known it to this day if you hadn't given the young idiot leave to go and blab, and so clear ...
— The Willoughby Captains • Talbot Baines Reed

... the cause, not heard it? And as they please, make matter of fact Run all on one side, as they're pack't? Nature has made man's breast no windores, To publish what he does within doors, 370 Nor what dark secrets there inhabit, Unless his own rash folly blab it. If oaths can do a man no good In his own bus'ness, why they shou'd In other matters do him hurt, 375 I think there's little reason for't. He that imposes an oath, makes it, Not he that for convenience ...
— Hudibras • Samuel Butler

... blab it all over town about how you saved us," he sneered, as the Flying Fish threaded her way through the tumbling waters at the mouth of the inlet and began ...
— The Boy Scouts of the Eagle Patrol • Howard Payson

... you are a girl, of course. Leave me in peace. Women have no business in there, they are always so inquisitive, want to know everything and then blab it all out—it is their ...
— The Poor Plutocrats • Maurus Jokai

... one," Malone said. "We got one flash each from Brubitsch, Borbitsch and Garbitsch while we were questioning them. And in each case, that flash occurred just before they started to blab everything they knew. Before the flash, they weren't talking. They were behaving just like good spies and keeping their mouths shut. After the flash, they couldn't ...
— Supermind • Gordon Randall Garrett

... Monacello in casa—perhaps he has had the Fairy in the house—has passed into a local phrase to designate a neighbour's unexplained prosperity. But, again, the lucky recipient of these favours must never blab or even hint at the origin of his good fortune, for all gossip is highly distasteful to the fairy folk; and that, we suppose, is the true reason why so little authentic information can be gleaned as to the methods ...
— The Naples Riviera • Herbert M. Vaughan

... Frank. "Why, the great comedy actor, Mr. Liston," replied the landlady, "come down for a holiday; he wants to be quiet, so we must not blab, or the whole town will ...
— The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction, Vol. 14, - Issue 389, September 12, 1829 • Various

... as snake, sneak, snail, snare; so likewise snap and snatch, snib, snub. Bl imply a blast; as blow, blast, to blast, to blight, and, metaphorically, to blast one's reputation; bleat, bleak, a bleak place, to look bleak, or weather-beaten, black, blay, bleach, bluster, blurt, blister, blab, bladder, blew, blabber lip't, blubber-cheek't, bloted, blote-herrings, blast, blaze, to blow, that is, blossom, bloom; and perhaps blood ...
— A Grammar of the English Tongue • Samuel Johnson

... that it would not still be treachery, even now, for those who have unwound his clues, and traversed his labyrinths to the heart of his mystery,—for those who have penetrated to the chamber of his inner school, to come out and blab a secret with which he still works so potently; insensibly to those on whom he works, perhaps, yet so potently? But there is no harm done. It will still take the right reader to find his way through these new devices in letters; these new and vivacious ...
— The Philosophy of the Plays of Shakspere Unfolded • Delia Bacon

... blacks, and chose a seat off in one corner of the room. Then "Foxy Grandpa" and the "Arizona Babe" arrived, and the old maid from Zamboanga, who, when expression failed her, would usurp the conversation with a "blab, blab, blab!" And as the serpent made for old Laocooen, so she ...
— The Great White Tribe in Filipinia • Paul T. Gilbert

... you women. To say women and enough's said. Everything is froth and bubble to you. All of a sudden you blab out words that don't make the least sense. The worst you'd get would be a flogging; but it means ruination to the husband.—Say, my dear, you are as familiar with him as if ...
— The Inspector-General • Nicolay Gogol

... physician must work with it—ahem!—or miss his cure. To be brief with you, I persuaded 'em, sick or sound, to have at the whole generation of rats throughout the village. And there's a reason for all things too, though the wise physician need not blab 'em all. Imprimis, or firstly, the mere sport of it, which lasted ten days, drew 'em most markedly out of their melancholy. I'd defy sorrowful job himself to lament or scratch while he's routing rats from a rick. Secundo, or secondly, the ...
— Rewards and Fairies • Rudyard Kipling

... if possible, my crime, 490 Shameful garrulity. To have reveal'd Secrets of men, the secrets of a friend, How hainous had the fact been, how deserving Contempt, and scorn of all, to be excluded All friendship, and avoided as a blab, The mark of fool set on his front? But I Gods counsel have not kept, his holy secret Presumptuously have publish'd, impiously, Weakly at least, and shamefully: A sin That Gentiles in thir Parables condemn 500 To thir abyss ...
— The Poetical Works of John Milton • John Milton

... said, "for my cross looks and shrewish ways. I see that I have acted altogether wrongly in the matter, and that neither you nor Diggory are to blame. I knew not that others were concerned, and thought that a mystery was being made because it was considered that, did I know it, I should run out and blab it in the streets of Plymouth. Now I know how it is, I am well content as to that; but not so, at the thought of this unknown peril into which you are about to run, and I wonder that Diggory should adventure your life, and that of ...
— By Right of Conquest - Or, With Cortez in Mexico • G. A. Henty

... a cooler moment, I hasten to blab the whole simplicity of it, to blab on Roscoe and the other navigators and the rest of the priesthood, all for fear that I may become even as they, secretive, immodest, and inflated with self-esteem. And I want to say this now: any young fellow with ordinary ...
— The Cruise of the Snark • Jack London

... replied, "I'll bank on yez all. But yez better go home now an' think this all over, an' what is more important, keep ye'r tongues still an' don't blab this all over the place. When I want yez, I'll send ...
— The Unknown Wrestler • H. A. (Hiram Alfred) Cody

... could be had out of her. Even when she reached her home again, and Mrs. Byrne followed her in, afraid of leaving the frightened woman alone lest she should "blab" the whole secret to the first person she met,—even then Mrs. Cregan could not speak until she had gathered up the broken dishes and propped the broken chair against the wall, as frantically as if she were trying to conceal the evidence of a crime. Then she sank down on ...
— McClure's Magazine, Vol 31, No 2, June 1908 • Various

... too, they say. He's heartily frightened. A few more will follow, and we must both be out of the way. The rest could not well be identified, and whether they are or not does not concern us, except that they may blab of their confederates. Such as seem likely to suffer detection must be frightened off; and this, by the way, is not so difficult a matter. Pippin knows nothing of himself. Forrester is too much involved to be forward. It was for this that I aroused ...
— Guy Rivers: A Tale of Georgia • William Gilmore Simms

... If I had said I had seen him do you wrong? Or heard him say,—as knaves be such abroad, Who having, by their own importunate suit, Or voluntary dotage of some mistress, Convinced or supplied them, cannot choose But they must blab,— ...
— Othello, the Moor of Venice • William Shakespeare

... have chow, and I'll tell you about this spotting business. You help me, and I'll help you. One blab and back you go to where you ...
— The Fourth R • George Oliver Smith

... added he, "there is not only Miss Biddy,-though I should have scored to mention her, if her brother had not blab'd, for I'm quite particular in keeping ladies' secrets,-but there are a great many other ladies that have been proposed to me;-but I never thought twice of any of them, that is, not in a serious way:-so you may very well be proud," offering to take my ...
— Evelina • Fanny Burney

... first time since his mother's death Abe seemed to cheer up. Every morning, except when there were chores to do at home, he and Sally took a path through the woods to the log schoolhouse. Master Crawford kept a "blab" school. The "scholars," as he called his pupils, studied their lessons out loud. The louder they shouted, the better he liked it. If a scholar didn't know his lesson, he had to stand in the corner with a long pointed cap on his head. This was called ...
— Abe Lincoln Gets His Chance • Frances Cavanah

... assigning as a reason the recent death of Mrs. Hearne, of which I was the cause, although innocent. "A pretty life I should lead with those two," said I, "when they came to know it." "Pooh," said Mr. Petulengro, "they will never know it. I shan't blab, and as for Leonora, that girl has a head on her shoulders." "Unlike the woman in the sign," said I, "whose head is cut off. You speak nonsense, Mr. Petulengro; as long as a woman has a head on her shoulders she'll talk,—but, ...
— Lavengro - The Scholar, The Gypsy, The Priest • George Borrow

... Gleichen, from de Choiseul, with whom he professes to have been intimate. The King and the Marechal de Belle-Isle would not tell the story of their own discomfiture. It is not very likely that de Choiseul himself would blab. However, the anecdote avers that the King and the Minister for War thought it best to say nothing, and the demand for Saint-Germain's extradition was presented at The Hague. But the Dutch were not fond of giving up ...
— The Lock and Key Library/Real Life #2 • Julian Hawthorne

... walk (not saunter) on 110 Through guards and guards—I have rehearsed it all Inside the turret here a hundred times Don't ask the way of whom you meet, observe! But where they cluster thickliest is the door Of doors; they'll let you pass—they'll never blab 115 Each to the other, he knows not the favorite, Whence he is bound and what's his business now. Walk in—straight up to him; you have no knife: Be prompt, how should he scream? Then, out with you! Italy, Italy, my Italy! 120 You're free, you're free! Oh, mother, ...
— Selections from the Poems and Plays of Robert Browning • Robert Browning

... in doubt what answer to make, and then, as if adopting an open course, he said: 'I've know'd you a good while, Mr. Grosket, and you won't blab, if I tell you what I suspect, will ye? It's only guess-work, after all. Promise me that; I know ...
— The Knickerbocker, or New-York Monthly Magazine, February 1844 - Volume 23, Number 2 • Various

... it a moment, and then he says: 'I tell you what. I shouldn't blab this all round the parish, if I was you. You won't get no credit for truth-telling, and a miracle's wasted on a set of fools. But if you like, I'll shut down the lock again upon a holy word that no one but me shall ...
— The Boy Scouts Book of Stories • Various

... babble, gabble, jabber, tattle, twaddle, blab, gossip, palaver, parley, converse, mumble, mutter, stammer, stutter.> (With this group compare the Say and Speak ...
— The Century Vocabulary Builder • Creever & Bachelor

... "And now see here, what are you fellows going to do? Blab, and see me driven out of ...
— Dave Darrin's Second Year at Annapolis - Or, Two Midshipmen as Naval Academy "Youngsters" • H. Irving Hancock

... cannot think me base enough to blab of a money transaction with a lady. There are secrets more ...
— London Pride - Or When the World Was Younger • M. E. Braddon

... resemblance to the lady of moods, mystery, and passion who is so overworked in our modern literature. No one dreamt of going into hysterics over the veining of a leaf, or penning a rhapsody on the outline of a rain-cloud; nor could it yet be said that, 'if everybody must needs blab of the favours that have been done him by roadside, and river-brink, and woodland walk, as if to kiss and tell were no longer treachery, it will soon be a positive refreshment to meet a man who is as superbly indifferent to Nature as she ...
— Little Memoirs of the Nineteenth Century • George Paston

... you blab like this you'll be tarred and feathered. Girl alive, can't you keep a still tongue in your head? If you'd lived in the Middle Ages you'd have ended your ...
— The Jolliest School of All • Angela Brazil



Words linked to "Blab" :   expose, discover, let out, smatter, verbalize, give away, utter, bring out, mouth, blither, blether, keep quiet, verbalise, unwrap, reveal, disclose, let on, blather, divulge, spill, break, speak



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