Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(Aus./N.Z.) to talk, to chatter; thus yabbering n., talk, chatter.

1847		Sydney Atlas 10 Oct. in Townsend (1849) 236: There was tremendous ‘yabbering’ heard.
1859		W. Burrows Adventures of a Mounted Trooper 83: The missionaries yabber plenty.
1867		Queenslander (Brisbane) 2 Feb. 8/6: The blackfellows [...] commenced howling and ‘yabbering’.
1879		Maitland mercury 23 Aug. 6/3: We could hear the black fellows ‘yabbering’ and we thought we were right for capture.
1880		Bulletin (Sydney) 13 Mar. 6/2: What foa you yabber like it that, one blooming French? […] You s’pose me a blooming Dutchman, eh?
1890		‘Rolf Boldrewood’ Colonial Reformer III 24: You can yabber fast enough when you like.
1893		Bathhurst Free Press (NSW) 10 May 2/6: After much ‘yabbering’ the chinaman said he thought the fine too much.
1903		J. Furphy Such is Life 191: Nobody could yabber with her but Bob.
1917		‘Banjo’ Paterson ‘The Cast-iron Canvasser’ in Three Elephant Power 24: Now let’s hear him yabber.
1922		Brisbane Courier 7 June 8/5: There was no hideous giggling and yabbering.
1925		Townsville Daily Bulletin (Qld) 12 Dec. 6s/3: Then he been yabber to me long time.
1926		J. Doone Timely Tips For New Australians 23: YABBER. — An aboriginal word meaning to talk, frequently used in the colloquial.
1938		F. Blakeley Hard Liberty 274: I did not take you to that look-out just to yabber.
1943		Daily News (Perth) 16 Jan. 4/2: All day Fairbairn’s comrades heard the Japanese talking and yabbering.
1947		Argus (Melbourne) 4 Nov. 5/1: Mr Casey became a little angry [...] and alluded to the noisy group as ‘that yabbering gang’.
1949		Mirror (Perth) 13 Aug. 6/3: With all the galahs and dills that’ll drag in this yike, it’d be ridge to have someone who’s a wake-up to yabber with.
1951		(con. 1941) E. Lambert Twenty Thousand Thieves 196: Oh, for God’s sake stop yabbering like a book of regulations.
1958		D. Stivens Scholarly Mouse and other Tales 65: He yabbered something about getting on with the job.
1965		W. Dick Bunch of Ratbags 167: They were all yabbering in Italian to one another.
1975		K. Willey Ghosts of the Big Country 146: Walkie-Talkie could really yabber.
1982		Aus. Women’s Wkly 23 June 51/1: It’s when they start yabbering away in their native tongue that I figure its time to start worrying.
1997		M. Walters Echo 287: Plus, she don’t half talk a lot. Yabber, yabber, yabber.
1999		Indep Traveller 27 Nov. 12: To yabber (’talk a lot’).
2003		McGill Reed Dict. of N.Z. Sl.
2020		D. Whish-Wilson Shore Leave 180: [T]he japing and yabbering noise of the younger inmates.