gab, n.¹ — Green’s Dictionary of Slang

gab n.¹

[Scot. gab, the mouth]

the mouth.

1722		A. Ramsay ‘The Daft Bargain’ Fables and Tales 35: Content quoth Rab. – And slerg’d the rest o’t in his Gab.
1768		A. Ross Helenore in Wattie Scot. Works (1938) 37: An’ o’er her gab hang down a sneevling snout.
c.1786		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue ms. additions n.p.: Gob-String a Bridle.
1788		‘De Night before Larry was Stretch’d’ Irish Songster 4: When a boy was condemned to the Squeezer, / Would pop all de duds dat he had, / To help his comrade to a Sneezer, / And warm his gab ’fore he died.
1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue (3rd edn).
1809		G. Andrewes Dict. Sl. and Cant.
1823		Proceedings of Jockey and Maggy 42: He brings a bottle [...] she sets it to her gab.
1835		G. Kent Modern Flash Dict.
1848		Flash Dict. in Sinks of London Laid Open.
1850		E.V. Kenealy Goethe: a New Pantomime in Poetical Works 2 (1878) 334: Harridan, Virago, Scarecrow, / Cease your low and vulgar gab.
1857		‘Cuthbert Bede’ Adventures of Mr Verdant Green (1982) III 261: The camstary bruetes of dogs would not steek their clatterin’ gabs.
1890		Rare Bits 12 Apr. 347: Clap a stopper on your gab and whack up, or I’ll let ’er speak! [F&H].
1908		L.W. Payne Jr ‘Word-List From East Alabama’ in DN III:iv 313: gab, n. Idle talk, mouth.
1917		E. O’Neill In the Zone in Mayorga (1919) 195: Have ye a handkerchief, Yank? (Yank hands him one and he ties it tightly around Smitty’s head) That’ll fix your gab.
1924		P. Marks Plastic Age 100: ‘Close your gabs everybody,’ he commanded sternly.
1931		Irwin Amer. Tramp and Und. Sl. 82: Gab. – The mouth ; idle talk or chatter.
1962		Ragen & Finston World’s Toughest Prison 800: gab – The mouth.

In compounds

gab-box (n.)

a chatterer.

2003

M.R. Jones King for a Night 🌐 Stacey thought with a shudder, fuckin’ dog-mouthed gab-box.

gab string (n.) (also gob string) [gob n.¹ (1)]

a bridle.

1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue n.p.: Gab, or gob, string, a bridle.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1859		Matsell Vocabulum 38: gob string A bridle.

In phrases

blow one’s gab off (v.)

see blow one’s gob off under gob n.¹

blow the gab (v.)

to inform, to betray.

1749		B.M. Carew ‘The Oath of the Canting Crew’ in Farmer Musa Pedestris (1896) 50: Never blow the gab, or squeak; / Never snitch to bum or beak.
1841		‘F.L.G’ Swell’s Night Guide K2: Blow the Gab, to inform against a person.
1859		‘Scene in a London Flash-Panny’ Matsell Vocabulum 99: Jack deserved the tippet for making a lay with him, as all coves of his kidney blow the gab.
1881		Trumble Sl. Dict. [as cit. 1859].
1917		‘Henry Handel Richardson’ Aus. Felix (1971) 69: He shut one eye and laid a finger along his nose. ‘You won’t blow the gab?’.

flash one’s gab (v.)

to talk, esp. to brag, to boast.

1819		‘One of the Fancy’ Tom Crib’s Memorial to Congress 2: While his Lordship, as usual, that very great dab / At the flowers of rhet’ric, is flashing his gab.
1821		Flash Dict.
1835		G. Kent Modern Flash Dict.
1848		Flash Dict. in Sinks of London Laid Open.
c.1850		Duncombe New and Improved Flash Dict.

flash the gab (v.)

to show off, to act ostentatiously.

1890–1904

Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues.

give the gab (v.)

to betray a secret, to inform against.

1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1848		Flash Dict. in Sinks of London Laid Open.
1866		Wild Boys of London I 46/1: No pal could ever say as how I give the gab.

shoot one’s gab off (v.) (also shoot off one’s gab)

to talk excitedly.

1879		Atchison Dly Globe (KS) 27 Oct. 1/2: That man was arrested because he disturbed the peace of the neighborhood by shooting off his gab.
1884		Sun. News (Wilkes-Barre, PA) 2 Nov. 8/6: He went around the town [...] insulting people and shooting off his gab.
1917		Oskaloosa Indep. (KS) 5 Jan. 3/4: I [...] heard a campaign orator shooting off his gab.
1923		R. McAlmon Companion Volume 50: Go into another tent if you want to shoot off your gabs.
1924		P. Marks Plastic Age 197: He shoots off his gab as if he knew everything.
1932		(con. 1910s) J.T. Farrell Young Lonigan in Studs Lonigan (1936) 118: They shot their gabs off, till I got sick of listenin’ to them.
1933		J.T. Farrell Gas-House McGinty 226: If the old man shot his gab off he’d tell him to shut his trap.

shut one’s gab (v.)

see shut (up) one’s gob under gob n.¹

sling a gab (v.)

to talk a language.

1927

(con. 1918) J. Stevens Mattock 267: Take a look at the pore damn soldier of a Frog. I can sling their gab – and the tales I’ve heard – man, I know!

In exclamations

stop your gab! (also hold your gab!)

be quiet!

1797		M. Robinson Walsingham IV (1805) 84: Stop your gab, and put your pins in motion.
1831		Navy at Home II 197: ‘Do you hold your gab old Soundings,’ cried Shroud.
1834		Chester Chron. 18 July 3: And bang it, you should stop your gab.
1843		Gleaner (Manchester, NH) 29 Apr. n.p.: I advise you as a friend to hold your gab.
1859		Wells Jrnl (UK) 18 July 3/6: Old English words and phrases [...] Hold your gab, shut up your gob.
1859		Leics. Mercury 30 July 6/5: If you do not stop your — gab [...] I will cut your — head off.
1880		Blue Ridge Blade (Morganton, NC) 25 Dec. 1/6: ‘Stop your gab and clear out’.

gab n.1

In compounds

In phrases

In exclamations

gab n.¹