blah, v. — Green’s Dictionary of Slang

blah v.

also blah-blah

[onomat.]

1. to chatter, to gossip.

1929		E. Dahlberg Bottom Dogs 250: He spent much of his time sitting against the brass railings going down the front stone steps of the Y., where he could blah with a newsie or watch a well-turned leg.
1951		Kerouac On the Road (The Orig. Scroll) (2007) 110: I got drunk and blah-blahed somewhat.
1999		Guardian Guide 5–12 June 15: So we blah-blah a while, and it turns out yes, he’s this English director.

2. to speak in an insincere, pompous manner; thus intensified as blah-blah-blah.

1960		A. Burgess Right to an Answer (1978) 92: The two of you [...] blah-blah-blahing about the sanctity of this and the bloody inviolability of that.
1961		C. Cooper Jr Weed (1998) 204: ‘At Grandmommie’s house,’ he blahed at her.
1999		Guardian Rev. 11 Sept. 12: Even after another raft of much-blahed price cuts.

In phrases

blah, blah, blah

1. (also blahdy blahdy blah) a phr. used to imply that a statement is meaningless, hollow, nonsense, albeit delivered in the most serious of tones.

1924		in R. Butterfield Sat. Eve. Post Treasury (1954) 17 May 289: That blah-blah-blah-blah, and so on.
1929		(con. 1917–18) C. MacArthur War Bugs 194: Blah, blah, blah, blah, and ‘we had such a wonderful dance on board Lione’s boat’.
1932		(con. 1917–19) Dos Passos Nineteen Nineteen in USA (1966) 415: ‘Blahblahblahblah,’ brayed Ned in the man’s face.
1941		Dundee Courier 18 Dec. 2/2: It’s all official blah, blah, blah, until the test comes.
1951		Kerouac On the Road (The Orig. Scroll) (2007) 117: Chatter-chatter, blah-blah, and me swearing for all the time and money I’d wasted.
1959		A. Sinclair Breaking of Bumbo (1961) 116: Blah, blah, blah. Bumbo wonders to hear his mouth string platitudes.
1959		G. Slatter Gun in My Hand 204: Bloody salesmen. Shouting at us over the radio [...] and filling newspapers up with their blah blah blah.
1964		Larner & Tefferteller Addict in the Street (1966) 134: They brought me the priest and he said blah blah blah blah, the last words.
1967		L. Bruce Essential Lenny Bruce 247: This I never heard, blah-blah-blah. He said blah-blah-blah?
1972		G.V. Higgins Friends of Eddie Coyle 65: You can give me a whole ration of shit and this and that and blah, blah, blah.
1977		(con. 1949) J.G. Dunne True Confessions (1979) 250: The fluctuating baseline of the writing reveals the writer to be affected [...] Blah, blah, blah, blah.
1983		A. Payne ‘Willesden Suite’ Minder [TV script] 55: I would like to say what a pleasure, indeed an honour, blah blah, great honour, blah blah, pillars of the community blah, blah.
1991		L. Bing Do or Die (1992) 187: He didn’t like it, he didn’t feel comfortable, blah, blah, blah.
1998		Source Oct. 200: You driving a 600 Benz and you just got mad diamonds and blah blah.
1999		Guardian Rev. 5 Nov. 8: Harmony, you’re so inspiring, oh Harmony blah blah blah.
1999		K. Sampson Powder 163: You can fuckin hear the justification . . . guaranteed Breakfast Show playlist, blah-blah-blah.
2000		T. Blacker Kill Your Darlings 251: You’re a writer yeah yeah, blahdy-blah.
2000		J.J. Connolly Layer Cake 1: Cuffed up and getting the old ‘you do not have to say anything, blah blah blah’ routine.
2000		P. Howard Miseducation of Ross O’Carroll-Kelly (2004) 137: Some last-minute advice on how to play it cool [...] blahdy blahdy blah.
2001		N. Barlay Hooky Gear 28: He read me my rights an tell me wha I been arrested for. Which as per usual is on suspicion of bla bla an fuckin bla on the fuckin bla bla night of fuckin bla.
2012		M. Lacher On the Bro’d 214: Blah blah blah and whatever stupid drama.
2024		M.M. Olohan Trans 152: I asked her, ‘Tell my father it went well, it was the best thing you ever had. Blah blah blah’ .

2. (Aus./US) as synon. for et cetera, ‘and so on’.

1949		R. Chandler Little Sister 123: Receipt of which you acknowledge on the copy of this letter. Blah, blah, blah.
1982		G.V. Higgins Patriot Game (1985) 231: Sworn to uphold the Constitution and the laws of the United States. Blah Blah Blah.
1982		N. Keesing Lily on the Dustbin 52: ‘Blah, blah, blah’ is often used [...] particularly by women, as a substitute for etcetera, etcetera.
1996		(con. 1949) G. Pelecanos Big Blowdown (1999) 272: Only loved the niggers, and the white niggers, and anybody else who could come up with eight bits. Blah, blah, blah.
2004		P. Howard PS, I Scored the Bridesmaids 31: We’re talking a black GTI here, alloys, blah blah blah.
2023		M. Grossman Lost in Trans Nation 21: If sex and gender are interchangeable, then sex is all those things too—subjective, multidimensional, nuanced, blah blah blah.

3. an otherwise unidentified object.

1965

L. Bruce How to Talk Dirty 78: Why, that blah-blah-blah is in perfect condition.