slabber

• IPA^(key): /ˈslæbə(ɹ)/
• Rhymes: -æbə(ɹ)

From Middle English slaberen, from Middle Dutch slabberen (“to lap, sup, slaver, slabber”), from Old Dutch *slabron, from Proto-West Germanic *slabrōn, from Proto-Germanic *slabrōną (“to scrawl, make a mess”), ultimately imitative. Cognate with Low German slabbern (“to slabber”), German schlabbern (“to slabber”), Icelandic slafra (“to slaver”). More at slaver.

• slobber, slubber

slabber (third-person singular simple present slabbers, present participle slabbering, simple past and past participle slabbered)

1. (intransitive) To let saliva or other liquid fall from the mouth carelessly; drivel; slaver.
2. (transitive) To eat hastily or in a slovenly manner, as liquid food.
3. (transitive) To wet and befoul by liquids falling carelessly from the mouth; slaver; slobber.
   • 1712, Humphry Polesworth [pseudonym; John Arbuthnot], “Of Some Quarrels that Happen’d after Peg was Taken into the Family”, in John Bull Still in His Senses: Being the Third Part of Law is a Bottomless-Pit. […], London: […] John Morphew, […], →OCLC, page 23:

     At the ſame time he clap'd me on the Back, and ſlabber'd me all over from Cheek to Cheek, vvith his great Tongue.

4. (transitive) To cover, as with a liquid spill; soil; befoul.
   • 1580, Thomas Tusser, Fiue Hundred Pointes of Good Husbandrie: […], London: […] Henrie Denham [beeing the assigne of William Seres] […], →OCLC; republished as W[illiam] Payne and Sidney J[ohn Hervon] Herrtage, editors, Five Hundred Pointes of Good Husbandrie. […], London: Published for the English Dialect Society by Trübner & Co., […], 1878, →OCLC:

     The milk pan and cream pot so slabbered and tost / That butter is wanting and cheese is half lost.

slabber (countable and uncountable, plural slabbers)

1. Moisture falling from the mouth; slaver.

From slab +‎ -er.

slabber (plural slabbers)

1. A saw for cutting slabs from logs.
2. A slabbing machine.

• Bablers, barbels, barbles, rabbles