abubble

English

Etymology

a- (“in such a state or condition”) +‎ bubble[1]

Pronunciation

Adjective

abubble (not comparable)

  1. In a state of excitement, agitated activity, or motion. [First attested in the 19th century.]
    After they had sat down, the party remained abubble until the speaker rose.
    • 1885, Alexander Stewart, ’Twixt Ben Nevis and Glencoe, Edinburgh: William Paterson, Chapter 46, p. 337,
      It was at times as if a score of tiny rainbows of the most brilliant hues were being rapidly interwoven, only to be instantly untwisted again, in order to be rewoven into a newer and still brighter pattern, in and over an acre of sea, all abubble and aboil with the gambols of the frolicsome shoal.
    • 1913, Jack London, chapter 7, in John Barleycorn‎, New York: Century, page 64:
      The men in stripes worked a shorter day than I at my machine. And there was vastly more romance in being an oyster pirate or a convict than in being a machine slave. And behind it all, behind all of me with youth a-bubble, whispered Romance, Adventure.
    • 1944, Ernie Pyle, chapter 30, in Brave Men,‎, New York: Henry Holt, page 409:
      When we left the restaurant he was all abubble and said over and over again that he’d had the best time that evening he had ever had in the Army.
    • 1979, William Styron, chapter 13, in Sophie’s Choice‎, New York: Random House, page 381:
      Dr. Walter Dürrfeld […] a director of IG Farbenindustrie, that […] conglomerate—inconceivably huge even for its day—whose prestige and size are alone enough to set Professor Biegański’s mind abubble with giddy euphoria.
  2. Bubbling.
    The sour mash was abubble.
    • 1869, William Alexander, “Specimen of a Translation of Virgil”, in Afternoon Lectures on Literature and Art‎, Dublin: William McGee, page 345:
      Part haste the boiling caldron all a-bubble,

Synonyms

Adverb

abubble (not comparable)

  1. Bubbling over with excitement. [First attested in the mid 20th century.][1]

References
  1. Lesley Brown, editor-in-chief, William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, editors (2002), “abubble”, in The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles, 5th edition, Oxford, New York, N.Y.: Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 10.
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