WARBLE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does warble mean? 

• WARBLE (noun)
  The noun WARBLE has 1 sense:

1. a lumpy abscess under the hide of domestic mammals caused by larvae of a botfly or warble fly

  Familiarity information: WARBLE used as a noun is very rare.

• WARBLE (verb)
  The verb WARBLE has 2 senses:

1. sing or play with trills, alternating with the half note above or below

2. sing by changing register; sing by yodeling

  Familiarity information: WARBLE used as a verb is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• WARBLE (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A lumpy abscess under the hide of domestic mammals caused by larvae of a botfly or warble fly

Classified under:

Nouns denoting animals

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

animal disease (a disease that typically does not affect human beings)

• WARBLE (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they warble    ... he / she / it warbles   
Past simple: warbled   
Past participle: warbled   
-ing form: warbling   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Sing or play with trills, alternating with the half note above or below

Classified under:

Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing

Synonyms:

quaver; trill; warble

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

sing (produce tones with the voice)

Sentence frames:

Something ----s
Somebody ----s
Somebody ----s something

Sentence example:

They will warble the duet

Derivation:

warbler (a singer; usually a singer who adds embellishments to the song)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Sing by changing register; sing by yodeling

Classified under:

Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing

Synonyms:

descant; warble; yodel

Context example:

The Austrians were yodeling in the mountains

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

sing (produce tones with the voice)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s

Sentence example:

The birds warble in the woods

 Context examples 

Colonel Sebastian Moran has also been known to warble it.

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

I hear a nightingale warbling in a wood half a mile off; no moving form is visible, no coming step audible; but that perfume increases: I must flee.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

But she would have consented if he had proposed to sing a whole opera, and warbled away, blissfully regardless of time and tune.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

Some years ago, when the images which this world affords first opened upon me, when I felt the cheering warmth of summer and heard the rustling of the leaves and the warbling of the birds, and these were all to me, I should have wept to die; now it is my only consolation.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

Ned, getting sentimental, warbled a serenade with the pensive refrain...

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

The subject seemed strangely chosen for an infant singer; but I suppose the point of the exhibition lay in hearing the notes of love and jealousy warbled with the lisp of childhood; and in very bad taste that point was: at least I thought so.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

Hugo, getting thirsty after a long warble, drinks it, loses his wits, and after a good deal of clutching and stamping, falls flat and dies, while Hagar informs him what she has done in a song of exquisite power and melody.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

Having warbled his thanks and put the potions in his boots, Hugo departed, and Hagar informed the audience that as he had killed a few of her friends in times past, she had cursed him, and intends to thwart his plans, and be revenged on him.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)