Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. a gathering for talk; a spell of talking; a prolonged conference or conversation.

1895		Chatauquan 21 767/2: If Sovereign and all the rest of the coterie engaged in a gabfest against sound money knew anything [etc.].
1897		Boston Transcript 7 Jan. 15/7: A Chicago paper speaks of the speechmaking on Andrew Jackson’s day as ‘the Democratic gabfest’.
1907		W.M. Raine Bucky O’Connor (1910) 101: I’ll leave you and your jelly-fish Scotty to your gabfest.
1917		letter in K.F. Cowing Dear Folks at Home (1919) 33: Here we are huddled about the stove with wet feet having a song and a gab-fest.
1925		D. Hammett ‘Corkscrew’ Story Omnibus (1966) 221: We had quite a little gabfest.
1933		Lyre of Alpha Chi Omega 36:2 257/1: The Springfield Alumnae Club opened the year with the usual gab session and bridge party.
1934		V.G. Burns Female Convict (1960) 42: When lights goes out, let’s have a gab-fest, eh?
1946		Mezzrow & Wolfe Really the Blues 112: The gab-session wound up one night with our breezing over to Paradise Gardens [...] to listen to the queen of the blues.
1953		A.J. Liebling Honest Rainmaker (1991) 133: He was guest of honor at the weekly luncheon and gabfeist [sic] of the Rotary Club.
1959		H. Ellison ‘Have Coolth’ in Gentleman Junkie (1961) 137: He and I had quite a few gab sessions about [...] the old days.
1962		D. Powell Golden Spur (1991) 143: The young men kept the apartment lively with their girlfriends and all night gab-fests.
1965		(con. 1944) E.M. Nathanson Dirty Dozen (2002) 322: Keep your mouth shut, White! [...] This isn’t a gabfest!
1983		J. Ciardi A Second Browser’s Dict. 107: Gabfest. Any session marked by loquacity.
1991		(con. 1920s) O.D. Brooks Legs 27: I broke up their gabfest.
2003		L. Ingraham Shut Up and Sing 255: The 9000 union delegates attending the four-day gabfest prefer to pontificate on issues [etc.].
2007		S. Maloney Sucked In 8: Charlie was in Mildura for some [...] gabfest in his capacity as Shadow Minister.
2023		(con. 1962) J. Ellroy Enchanters 38: Marilyn and Jeanne. The gabfest mnight extend.

2. garrulous, unrestrained talk.

1897		Atchison Dly Champion (KS) 12 Mar. 2/1: All those good old homely English terms are eliminated from the vocabulary of the prize ring as a result of its sordidness and its degeneration into a mere gabfest.
1905		A. Binstead Mop Fair 34: I talked what the Teutons call ‘gab fest’ and ultimately fled in confusion.
2000		(con. 1940s–60s) Décharné Straight from the Fridge Dad.

a chatterer, an idle talker.

1890–1904		Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues.
1906		Sun. Times (Perth) 23 Sept. 1/1: The parties to the wrangle were a Government gabster and an Independent.
1927		in K.M. Osburn Southern ute Women (2009) 17: In 1927 OIA investigator H. H. Fiske called her ‘difficult, demanding, [and] a gabster, spreading her secrets wherever she thinks she may find a retentive ear’.
1948		G.B. Stern No Son of Mine 35: You’ve opened your mouth enough, never have I met such a gabster.
1952		Billboard 5 July 6: When gabster Barry Gray takes a summer vacation from WMCA here [...] the station will not attempt to find a substitute spieler.
1966		Travel & Camera 19 78: The 6'4" gabster has [...] tackled every subject and and every guest imaginable in the course of his marathon 5 hour talk sessions.
1983		M. Cameron Scandalous Bargain 127: Franky might not have been the smartest man in town, but he was good-natured and was not a gabster.
1993		R. Coughlin Grieving 16: He talked a lot, as was his wont, a regular gabster he was.
2010		M. Reynolds Woman’a Estate IV 77: You talk too much, gabster [...] Bite your bloody tongue!”.

(US) a talker, esp. a convincing talker.

1908		Carpenter 28 44: After the orchestra had played some more selections of appropriate music Attorney White E. Gibson, known as the ‘Gab Artist,’ was introduced.
1909		Judge’s Library 238-49 n.p.: ‘Why,’ asked the weary-looking man of the chap who had been talking an hour without saying anything, ‘is a human being different from a suit-case?’ ‘I don’t know,’ answered the gab artist.
1913		Miner’s Mag. 46/1: The gab-artist pauperized the English language to find verbal bouquets to fling at the heroes and patriots.
1919		Bismark Trib. (ND) 17 Mar. 4/2: They are merely special special pleaders, and skilled gab artists.
1946		Mezzrow & Wolfe Really the Blues 335: This guy was such a gab-artist, damn if he didn’t talk me into it.
1955		D. Niland Shiralee 168: One gab-artist at a time is enough for me.
1984		G. Brown N.Y. Times Encyc. Film I n.p.: From where the client stands the agent is slippery, evasive, untrustworthy, doubledealing, a man quick with the promise and slow on the delivery, a dodger, a liar, a gab artist.
2003		posting at OrangePolitics.org 1 Oct. 🌐 Ann Coulter is a gab artist, a shockmeister, a quip machine. This is her schtick.

(Aus.) a gossip.

1949

R. Park Poor Man’s Orange 117: Mrs Campion was such a gab-bag, and only the Dear knew what she would make of a strange man in Mumma’s spare room.

(Ulster) a talkative person.

1997

Share Slanguage.

see talk one’s head off under talk v.