Nominal Forms
Infinitive: to gab
Participle: gabbed
Gerund: gabbing
Cognates
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Indicative
Present
| I | gab |
| you | gab |
| he;she;it | gabs |
| we | gab |
| you | gab |
| they | gab |
Perfect
| I | have gabbed |
| you | have gabbed |
| he;she;it | has gabbed |
| we | have gabbed |
| you | have gabbed |
| they | have gabbed |
Past
| I | gabbed |
| you | gabbed |
| he;she;it | gabbed |
| we | gabbed |
| you | gabbed |
| they | gabbed |
Pluperfect
| I | had gabbed |
| you | had gabbed |
| he;she;it | had gabbed |
| we | had gabbed |
| you | had gabbed |
| they | had gabbed |
Future
| I | will gab |
| you | will gab |
| he;she;it | will gab |
| we | will gab |
| you | will gab |
| they | will gab |
Future Perfect
| I | will have gabbed |
| you | will have gabbed |
| he;she;it | will have gabbed |
| we | will have gabbed |
| you | will have gabbed |
| they | will have gabbed |
Subjunctive
Present
| I | gab |
| you | gab |
| he;she;it | gab |
| we | gab |
| you | gab |
| they | gab |
Perfect
| I | have gabbed |
| you | have gabbed |
| he;she;it | have gabbed |
| we | have gabbed |
| you | have gabbed |
| they | have gabbed |
Imperfect
| I | gabbed |
| you | gabbed |
| he;she;it | gabbed |
| we | gabbed |
| you | gabbed |
| they | gabbed |
Pluperfect
| I | had gabbed |
| you | had gabbed |
| he;she;it | had gabbed |
| we | had gabbed |
| you | had gabbed |
| they | had gabbed |
Conditional
Present
| I | would gab |
| you | would gab |
| he;she;it | would gab |
| we | would gab |
| you | would gab |
| they | would gab |
Perfect
| I | would have gabbed |
| you | would have gabbed |
| he;she;it | would have gabbed |
| we | would have gabbed |
| you | would have gabbed |
| they | would have gabbed |
Imperative
| you | gab |
| we | Let's gab |
| you | gab |
Verbs conjugated like 'gab'
abet,
abhor,
abut,
acquit,
admit,
affrap,
allot,
alum,
amel,
amit,
anagram,
anvil,
apparel,
aret,
arret,
assot,
astun,
attrap,
augur,
avel, etc. (List truncated at 20 verbs)
Verbs similar to 'gab'
ab,
bab,
cab,
dab,
fab,
gad,
gag,
gam,
gap,
gar,
Additional Information
Phrasal Verbs
Etymology
1. c.1200, via Scottish and northern England dialect, from O.N.
gabba "to mock," or O.Fr.
gabber "mock, boast," both probably ultimately imitative.
Gabby first attested 1719;
gabfest "session of conversation" is 1897 Amer.Eng. slang.
Gift of the gab "talent for speaking" is from 1681.
2. From Middle English gabben, from Old English gabban (“to scoff, mock, delude, jest”) and Old Norse gabba (“to mock, make sport of”); both from Proto-Germanic *gabbōną (“to mock, jest”), from Proto-Indo-European *gʰeh₁bʰ- (“to be split, be forked, gape”).
3. Cognate with Scots gab (“to mock, prate”), North Frisian gabben (“to jest, sport”), Middle Dutch gabben (“to mock”), Middle Low German gabben (“to jest, have fun”). See: Proto-Germanic '
*gabbōną'.
Sample Sentences
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He would chant his own doughty deeds, and “gab,” as the Norman word was, in painful earnest, while they gabbed only in sport, and outvied each other in impossible fanfaronades” [1866, Charles Kingsley, chapter 12, in Hereward the Wake, London: Nelson, page 181:]
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"That Mrs. Mender gives a bloke the ear-ache; thinks a bloke's got all day to waste listening to her gab." [1938, Norman Lindsay, Age of Consent, 1st Australian edition, Sydney, N.S.W.: Ure Smith, published 1962, →OCLC, page 26:]