| 释义 |
rab·ble
I. \ˈrabəl\ noun
(-s)
Etymology: Middle English rabel; perhaps akin to rabble (IV)
1. : a pack, string, or swarm of animals or insects
< great rabbles of rats roamed the streets — Elizabeth Enright >
2.
a. dialect chiefly England : a confused or meaningless string of words : rigmarole
b. : a heterogeneous, disorganized, or confused collection of things
< giant trees under whose dense canopy the alien and tangled rabble of the jungle does not thrive — P.B.Sears >
3.
a. : a disorganized or disorderly crowd of people
< a mere rabble of field hands pretending to be soldiers — Kenneth Roberts >
: mob
< besieged by a rabble of small children — Sacheverell Sitwell >
b. : a group, class, or body regarded with contempt
< a rabble of nobility … conspires to mount a gruesome charade — Time >
c. : the lowest class of people
< in the Civil War, the rabble made common cause with the … nobility against the middle classes — Roy Lewis & Angus Maude >
: persons of the lowest class
< the London rabble, chimney sweepers, watermen, costermongers, thieves — E.G.Johnson >
II. adjective
1. : of, relating to, or forming a rabble
< those were the enemy, a rabble crew — S.L.Gwynn >
2. : resembling or suited to a rabble
< to burn the jails … was a good rabble trick — Samuel Johnson >
III. transitive verb
(rabbled ; rabbled ; rabbling \-b(ə)liŋ\ ; rabbles)
1. : to insult or assault by a mob : mob
2. : to mob and drive out
< members of the Scottish Episcopalian clergy were often rabbleed during the English Revolution >
IV. verb
(-ed/-ing/-s)
Etymology: Middle English rablen; akin to Dutch rabbelen to chatter, rattle, Low German rabbeln
dialect chiefly Britain : babble
V. noun
(-s)
Etymology: French râble fire shovel, from Middle French roable, from Medieval Latin rotabulum, from Latin rutabulum, from rutus, past participle of ruere to dig up, rake up — more at rug
1. obsolete : a charcoal burner's shovel
2.
a. : an iron bar with the end bent for use like a rake used in puddling iron
b. : any similar device (as a rotating arm with a scraper) for skimming the bath in a melting or refining furnace or for stirring the ore in a roasting furnace by hand or mechanically
VI. transitive verb
(-ed/-ing/-s)
: to stir, skim, or gather with a rabble |