blabbing
Blabbing means talking too much or carelessly, and often telling a secret you were supposed to keep. It is informal English and usually a criticism.
By Cal Hewitt, Gen X · Researched from public sources · ·
What it means
Blabbing has two meanings that sit side by side, and the words after it tell you which one you are looking at. With no object, it is about the talking itself: "stop blabbing" during a movie means stop talking so much, or stop saying things without thinking. With an object, it is about what got out: "he blabbed the password" or "don't blab about the surprise" means telling something that was supposed to stay private. Collins lists both, chattering or prattling and revealing a secret indiscreetly, and Dictionary.com defines blab as to reveal something "indiscreetly and thoughtlessly". One short sentence counts as blabbing if it gives away something confidential. Cambridge and Oxford both label blab informal, and it is almost always a criticism. Said to a friend who is rambling, "you're blabbing" can be gentle teasing. Said to someone who just repeated a secret, it is an accusation of breaking a confidence, even when the sentence sounds casual. It is not a slur and does not target anyone's identity; the charge is about gossip, oversharing or a broken trust. Calling someone a blabbermouth goes further, because it turns one slip into a description of the person: somebody who cannot be trusted with information. Yapping overlaps with it. Cambridge defines yap, said of people, as talking continuously, so someone can yap for twenty minutes and give nothing away, while someone else can blab a secret in five words. At work or in formal writing, "oversharing", "disclosing information" or "revealing confidential information" say the same thing without the informal edge.
See the quick definition in the blabbing dictionary entry.
How to use it
“ok stop blabbing and just tell me what happened”
No object, so this is about too much talk. Friendly impatience.
“don't blab this to anyone pls”
A request to keep something private, sent before sharing it.
“why would you blab that to her, that was between us”
An accusation. A secret got out and the sender blames the person who told.
“sorry i was blabbing for like an hour last night lol”
Self-teasing about talking too much. Nothing was leaked.
Where it came from
Blabbing is centuries-old English. The noun blabbe, meaning someone who cannot control their tongue or keep a secret, appears in Chaucer's Troilus around 1374, quoted in the World English Historical Dictionary. Etymonline dates the verb blabben, "to talk idly and foolishly, talk too much", to the mid-1400s, and the sense of talking indiscreetly to around 1600.
The word is probably imitative of the sound of loose talk. Etymonline compares Old Norse blabbra, Danish blabbre and German plappern, all meaning to babble, and Oxford gives the origin as Middle English, probably Germanic, ultimately imitative. The World English Historical Dictionary calls the history of blab and blabber, and how the two relate, very obscure. No single coiner is documented; Chaucer is an early recorded user of the word.
The noun was very common in the 1500s and 1600s and grew rare in literature after about 1750, according to the same historical record. The verb stayed in everyday use, which is why a parent, a teacher and a teenager can all say "stop blabbing" and mean the same thing.
No single person is credited, the origin is well-documented.
Where it's popular
General English on both sides of the Atlantic. American and British dictionaries list it, and it turns up in conversation, school, workplaces, journalism and fiction.
How it caught on
- Mid-1300sEtymonline dates blabber, "to speak as an infant speaks", to this period, with the sense of talking excessively by the late 1300s.
- c. 1374Chaucer uses the noun blabbe in Troilus, for someone who cannot keep a secret, as quoted in the World English Historical Dictionary.
- Mid-1400sEtymonline dates the verb blabben, "to talk idly and foolishly, talk too much", to this period.
- 1535Coverdale's Bible translation of Proverbs 16:29 has "He yt is a blabbe of his tonge, maketh deuysion amonge prynces", quoted in the World English Historical Dictionary.
- c. 1600Etymonline dates the sense "to talk indiscreetly" from about this year.
- After c. 1750The noun blab becomes unusual in literature, according to the World English Historical Dictionary, while the verb stays in everyday use.
- December 1, 2024A meme from the Instagram account geriatric_influencer uses the word the ordinary way: "Then I start blabbing out random words to distract myself".
Test yourself
Chatter or leak?
0/21. A friend texts "who blabbed about the party??". What are they asking?
2. Roughly how old is the word blab?
Related slang
Questions people ask
What does blabbing mean?
Talking too much or carelessly, or telling a secret you should have kept. "Stop blabbing" is about the amount of talk. "She blabbed my secret" is about something private getting out.
Is it blabbing or blabbering?
Both are real words and they overlap. Blabbering leans toward rambling, noisy or hard-to-follow talk; Etymonline dates blabber to the mid-1300s as "to speak as an infant speaks". Blabbing also covers talking too much, and it is the word to use when someone gave away a secret. A baby can blabber all day, but only someone with a secret can blab it.
What does blab mean in slang?
The same thing it means in everyday English: to talk too much, or to let a secret out. It is informal, which is why it shows up in texts and captions, and it has meant this for centuries.
What does blabbed mean?
Blabbed is the past tense of blab. "He blabbed" usually means he told people something that was meant to stay private, as in "someone blabbed about the surprise party".
Is blabbing rude?
It is informal and usually critical. Between friends it can be light teasing about talking a lot. Aimed at someone who repeated a secret, it is a real accusation, and "blabbermouth" is harsher again because it labels the person.
Is blabbing the same as yapping?
They overlap on talking too much. Yapping is about how long and how constantly someone talks. Blabbing can mean that too, and it also covers giving away something private, even in one short sentence.
Chaucer used the noun blabbe for a person who cannot keep a secret in Troilus, around 1374.
- https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/blab
- https://www.collinsdictionary.com/us/dictionary/english/blab
- https://www.dictionary.com/browse/blabbing
- https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/us/definition/english/blab
- https://www.etymonline.com/word/blab
- https://wehd.com/9/Blab_sb1.html
- https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/yap
- https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/blabbermouth
- https://www.instagram.com/p/DDELlRJtA7i/
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