drivel

• (UK) IPA^(key): /dɹɪv.əl/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Hyphenation: driv‧el
• Rhymes: -ɪvəl

From Middle English drivelen, drevelen, from Old English dreflian (“to drivel, slobber, slaver”), from Proto-Germanic *drablijaną, from Proto-Indo-European *dʰerebʰ- (“cloudy, turbid; yeast”).

drivel (countable and uncountable, plural drivels)

1. Nonsense; senseless talk.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:nonsense

   • 1879, Henry James, chapter XVII, in Confidence, London: Chatto & Windus:

     “You pay too much attention to such insipid drivel in even mentioning it.”

   • 1913, Arthur Conan Doyle, “(please specify the page)”, in The Poison Belt […], London; New York, N.Y.: Hodder and Stoughton, →OCLC:

     But what drivel I am writing! It is just an attempt to pass the weary time.

   • 2020 August 26, Nigel Harris, “Comment Special: Catastrophe at Carmont”, in Rail, page 4:

     A ray of light amid all this nonsense was Gwyn Topham's piece in the Guardian, which was timely, measured, accurate and of appropriate tone. That this single report stood out so clearly as an exemplar is a scathing comment in itself on the volumes of drivel surrounding it.

2. (archaic) Saliva, drool.
3. (obsolete) A fool; an idiot.
   • a. 1587, Philippe Sidnei [i.e., Philip Sidney], “(please specify the folio)”, in [Fulke Greville; Matthew Gwinne; John Florio], editors, The Countesse of Pembrokes Arcadia [The New Arcadia], London: […] [John Windet] for William Ponsonbie, published 1590, →OCLC:

     if thou didst know what a life I lead with that drivel, it would make thee even of pity receive me into thy only comfort

drivel (third-person singular simple present drivels, present participle (US) driveling or drivelling, simple past and past participle (US) driveled or drivelled)

1. To talk nonsense; to talk senselessly; to drool.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:nonsense

2. (archaic, intransitive) To have saliva drip from the mouth.

   Synonym: drool

3. To be weak or foolish; to dote.
   • c. 1591–1595 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Romeo and Ivliet”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, (please specify the scene number in lowercase Roman numerals)]:

     This drivelling love is like a great natural, that runs lolling up and down to hide his bauble in a hole.

   • 1693, Decimus Junius Juvenalis, John Dryden, transl., “[The Satires of Decimus Junius Juvenalis.] The Sixth Satyr”, in The Satires of Decimus Junius Juvenalis. Translated into English Verse. […] Together with the Satires of Aulus Persius Flaccus. […], London: Printed for Jacob Tonson […], →OCLC:

     driveling dotard

Compare Old Dutch drevel (“scullion”).

drivel (plural drivels)

1. (obsolete) A servant; a drudge.
   • 1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book IV, Canto II”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:

     that foul aged drivel

Perhaps a blend of drive and dribble.

drivel (third-person singular simple present drivels, present participle driveling, simple past and past participle driveled)

1. To move or travel slowly.
   • 1865 October 7, The Mercury, Hobart, page 2:

     But that is a state of things, which must in time work its own cure. We cannot always go dribbling and drivelling along, government and people alike being the scoff of all onlookers.

   • 1872 October 29, The Newcastle Chronicle, NSW, page 4:

     There was a good deal of bustle and life at the inn; but three or four inebriates drivelling about the premises were 'suffering a recovery,' from the excitement of the previous night's entertainment.

   • 1914 May 30, The Darling Downs Gazette, Qld, page 2:

     Walter was as silly as most men are when in love. He went drivelling off in pursuit of her "dear little work-worn hands"[.]

   • 1938, Norman Lindsay, Age of Consent, 1st Australian edition, Sydney, N.S.W.: Ure Smith, published 1962, →OCLC, page 122:

     Drivelling back to the shanty at midday presented him with a distracting gamble over lunch.

   • 1939 September 15, The Daily Examiner, Grafton, NSW, page 5:

     "I am amazed to think we are in the second week of war and this country is still drivelling along with a small volunteer force," he added.

2. To use up or to be used up.
   • 1858 August 17, The Ovens and Murray Advertiser, Beechworth, Vic, page 2:

     Instead of drivelling away the precious initiative season of life in the vain labour of teaching tuneable voices to sing[.]

   • 1872 August 31, The Mercury, Hobart, page 2:

     It is for the country to say whether we are to keep on in this backward course, whether we are to go on getting deeper and deeper into debt, whether we are to have increased taxation year after year. The bone and sinew of the land is drivelling away.

• “drivel”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.

• Vidler, drevil