warble

English

WOTD – 14 May 2006

Perhaps onomatopoeic. (This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

warble (third-person singular simple present warbles, present participle warbling, simple past and past participle warbled)

(transitive) To modulate a tone's frequency.
(transitive) To sing like a bird, especially with trills.
- a. 1722, Matthew Prior, “Non Pareil”, in H. Bunker Wright, Monroe K. Spears, editors, The Literary Works of Matthew Prior, Second edition, volume I, Oxford: Clarendon Press, published 1971, page 683:
  Her voice more sweet than warbling sound,
  Tho’ sung by nightingale or lark,
  Her eyes such lustre dart around,
  Compar’d to them the sun is dark.
- 1865, Walt Whitman, “When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d”, in Sequel to Drum-Taps: When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d and other poems:
  In the swamp in secluded recesses, / A shy and hidden bird is warbling a song.
(transitive) To cause to quaver or vibrate.
- 1634, John Milton, “Arcades”, in Poems of Mr. John Milton, […], London: […] Ruth Raworth for Humphrey Mosely, […], published 1646, →OCLC:
  touch the warbled string
(intransitive) To be quavered or modulated; to be uttered melodiously.
- 1714, J[ohn] Gay, “Wednesday; or, The Dumps”, in The Shepherd’s Week. In Six Pastorals, London: […] R. Burleigh […], →OCLC, page 21:
  The wailings of a maiden I recite, / A maiden fair, that Sparabella hight. / Such ſtrains ne'er warble in the linnet's throat, / Nor the gay goldfinch chaunts ſo ſweet a note, [...]

to modulate a tone's frequency

to sing like a bird, especially with trills

warble (countable and uncountable, plural warbles)

The sound of one who warbles; singing with trills or modulations.
- 2015 April 16, Richard P. Grant, “Sex and the successful fundraiser”, in The Guardian‎^[1]:
  The blackbirds and robins and and^[sic] tits and finches shout at each other, chups and warbles and chirrups that, loosely translated, mean “Fancy a shag?”, “Get OFF my land” or “I’ve got a great big tonker.”
(military) In naval mine warfare, the process of varying the frequency of sound produced by a narrowband noisemaker to ensure that the frequency to which the mine will respond is covered.

warble (plural warbles)

A lesion under the skin of cattle, caused by the larva of a bot fly of genus Hypoderma.
A small hard swelling on a horse's back, caused by the galling of the saddle.

lesion under the skin of cattle, caused by by the larva of a bot fly