Green’s Dictionary of Slang

gab n.1

[Scot. gab, the mouth]

the mouth.

[Scot]A. Ramsay ‘The Daft Bargain’ Fables and Tales 35: Content quoth Rab. – And slerg’d the rest o’t in his Gab.
[UK]A. Ross Helenore in Wattie Scot. Works (1938) 37: An’ o’er her gab hang down a sneevling snout.
[UK]Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue ms. additions n.p.: Gob-String a Bridle.
[Ire] ‘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.
[UK]Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue (3rd edn).
[UK]G. Andrewes Dict. Sl. and Cant.
[Scot]Proceedings of Jockey and Maggy 42: He brings a bottle [...] she sets it to her gab.
[UK]G. Kent Modern Flash Dict.
[UK]Flash Dict. in Sinks of London Laid Open.
[UK]E.V. Kenealy Goethe: a New Pantomime in Poetical Works 2 (1878) 334: Harridan, Virago, Scarecrow, / Cease your low and vulgar gab.
[UK]‘Cuthbert Bede’ Adventures of Mr Verdant Green (1982) III 261: The camstary bruetes of dogs would not steek their clatterin’ gabs.
Rare Bits 12 Apr. 347: Clap a stopper on your gab and whack up, or I’ll let ’er speak! [F&H].
[US]L.W. Payne Jr ‘Word-List From East Alabama’ in DN III:iv 313: gab, n. Idle talk, mouth.
[US]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.
[UK]P. Marks Plastic Age 100: ‘Close your gabs everybody,’ he commanded sternly.
[US]Irwin Amer. Tramp and Und. Sl. 82: Gab. – The mouth ; idle talk or chatter.
[US]Ragen & Finston World’s Toughest Prison 800: gab – The mouth.

In compounds

gab-box (n.)

a chatterer.

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

In phrases

blow the gab (v.)

to inform, to betray.

[UK]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.
[UK]‘F.L.G’ Swell’s Night Guide K2: Blow the Gab, to inform against a person.
[US] ‘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.
[US]Trumble Sl. Dict. [as cit. 1859].
[Aus]‘Henry Handel Richardson’ Aus. Felix (1971) 69: He shut one eye and laid a finger along his nose. ‘You won’t blow the gab?’.
shoot one’s gab off (v.) (also shoot off one’s gab)

to talk excitedly.

[US]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.
Sun. News (Wilkes-Barre, PA) 2 Nov. 8/6: He went around the town [...] insulting people and shooting off his gab.
Oskaloosa Indep. (KS) 5 Jan. 3/4: I [...] heard a campaign orator shooting off his gab.
[US]R. McAlmon Companion Volume 50: Go into another tent if you want to shoot off your gabs.
[UK]P. Marks Plastic Age 197: He shoots off his gab as if he knew everything.
[US](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.
[US]J.T. Farrell Gas-House McGinty 226: If the old man shot his gab off he’d tell him to shut his trap.
sling a gab (v.)

to talk a language.

[US](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!

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