Standard Lemma guide

grabble

noun · verb · 12 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.

  • /ˈɡɹæbl̩/
  • Southern-England: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.

1

noun

Meaning 1

A method of fishing using a line with several hooks fastened to it along with a lead weight so that the hooks sit on the bottom.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: obsolete, uncountable

Examples

  • To lay / fish (up)on the grabble

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

2

verb

Meaning 2

To search with one's hands and fingers; to attempt to grasp something.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: intransitive

Examples

  • 1614, John Taylor, Water-Worke: or, The Sculler’s Travels, Dedication, in All the Works of John Taylor the Water Poet, London: James Boler, 1630, reprinted for the Spenser Society, 1869, Ile grable for Gudgeons or fish for Flounders in the Rereward of our eminent temporizing Humorists, sharpe Satyrists, or Ænigmaticall Epigramatists.
  • 1887, Oscar Wilde, “The Canterville Ghost,” Chapter III, in Lord Arthur Savile’s Crime & Other Stories, London: James R. Osgood, McIlvaine and Co., 1891, p. 113, A few hollow groans from the wardrobe, he thought, would be more than sufficient, or, if that failed to wake her, he might grabble at the counterpane with palsy-twitching fingers.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: fumble, grope, grubble, root, rummage, feel around, scrabble, fish, forage, scramble, glaum, grabble, poke

Antonyms: none provided

3

verb

Meaning 3

To search in a similar way using an implement.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: intransitive, obsolete

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

4

verb

Meaning 4

To touch (someone) with one's hands or fingers, sometimes in a sexual way.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: transitive

Examples

  • 1719, Thomas d'Urfey, “Willey’s Intreague” in Wit and Mirth: or Pills to Purge Melancholy, London: J. Tonson, 1876 reprint, p. 195, When Nelly tho’ he teiz’d her, And Grabbled her and Squeez’d her, Cry’d, stay a little, I vow and swear I could kill ye, Another touch I can bear ye,

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: feel up, fondle, grope, canoodle, caress, chuckle, coax, cosset, dally, dandle, dawt, faddle, fond, grabble, nantle, pet, pettle, shift, smuggle, tiddle, touch up, worship

Antonyms: none provided

5

verb

Meaning 5

To pick (something or someone) up hastily, roughly or clumsily.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: transitive

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: grab, seize, snatch

Antonyms: none provided

6

verb

Meaning 6

To attempt to grab; to grasp at (something).

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: transitive

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: clutch, grip, beclasp, begrasp, begrip, belock, clasp, clench, clinch, cling, enclasp, fang, fondle, glaum, grab, grabble, grasp, hang on, hold on, hold tight, hold, nab, nim, seize, stranglehold, take

Antonyms: none provided

7

verb

Meaning 7

To pull, lift or dig (something) (out of the ground) by searching with one's hands and fingers.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: transitive

Examples

  • 1865, W. W. McCarty, “History of Captain W. W. McCarty’s Prison Life, and Southern Prisons,” in History of the 78th Regiment O.V.V.I., Zanesville, OH: Hugh Dunne, p. 302, [...] Harry went into the potato patch and grabbled us some sweet potatoes [...]
  • 1910, J. C. Cooper (ed.), Walnut Growing in Oregon, Passenger Department, Portland, OR: Oregon Railroad and Navigation Co., Southern Pacific Company Lines in Oregon, p. 17, One grower had a bed of hybrid black walnuts. The season was late and when the ground was ready for planting many had started to grow. He engaged some boys to grabble out the nuts from the sand beds, urging care, but many of the best were broken and injured.
  • 1924, United States Department of Labor, Child Labor and the Work of Mothers on Norfolk Truck Farms, Bureau Publication No. 30, Washington: Government Printing Office, p. 11, The potatoes [...] are then lifted out of the soil by hand—“scratched,” “graveled,” or “grabbled” out, according to the idioms of the colored workers [...]

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: grub

Antonyms: none provided

8

verb

Meaning 8

To lift (something) out in a similar way using an implement.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: obsolete, transitive

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

9

verb

Meaning 9

To catch fish by reaching into the water with one's hand.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: Southeastern, US, ambitransitive

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: noodle

Antonyms: none provided

10

verb

Meaning 10

To fish on the grabble.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: ambitransitive, obsolete

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

11

verb

Meaning 11

To utter inarticulate sounds, often quickly and loudly; to say (something) quickly, idly or foolishly.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: ambitransitive

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: babble, gabble, gibber, jabber

Antonyms: none provided

12

verb

Meaning 12

To lie prostrate; to sprawl on the ground.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: intransitive, obsolete

Examples

  • 1584, uncredited translator (attributed to Barnabe Rich), The Famous Hystory of Herodotus, London: Thomas Marshe, Book 2, [...] they conduct hym to the hygh way that leadeth to the temple of the goddesse Ceres, where after they haue placed hym, they leaue hym grabling in that place, and departe their waye.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: grovel

Antonyms: none provided

History

Etymology

From grab + -le.

Across languages

Translations

3 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Bulgarian: търся пипнешком (tǎrsja pipneškom) — to grope
  • Māori: hārau — to grope
  • Māori: whāwhā — to grope