Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(orig. Anglo-Ind.) to confuse or bewilder; to dumbfound.

1859		C. MacGregor Life [...] of Major-General Sir Charles Metcalfe MacGregor (1888) 111: ‘All I would ask for would be one other European officer, as if I got shot natives are apt to get ghabraoed (confused) if they have not some head to look to’.
1870		H.C. Ross Johnson Walter Raleigh Sinjohn 158: [T]he budmarshes, whom surprise[d] at Walter's sudden onslaught had been gabrowed, or startled too much to flee heretofore, now fairly bolted to their village.
1886		Yule & Burnell Hobson-Jobson (1903) 400/2: Gubbrow, v. To bully, to dumbfound, and perturb a person. Made from ghabr?o, the imperative of ghabr?n?. The latter, though sometimes used transitively, is more usually neuter, ‘to be dumbfounded and perturbed.’.
1914		A.E. Wardrop Modern Pig-sticking 28: No English word can quite express the meaning of ghabrou; it is a state of confusion and bewilderment.
1920		Pioneer Mail (Allahabad) 15 Oct. 31/3: Jack, Hyacinth thought it amusing till dear old Samson Quayle, a male spinster, ghabraoed him with hair uplifting tales of "what they say" about it.
1949		J.K. Stanford Guns Wanted 283: ‘o you remember when I told Gigoleo in the Taper Club you were the new Under-Secretary for Power and Gas, and ghabraoed him into giving us another bottle?’.
a.1956		J. Corbett 2nd Jim Corbett Omnibus (2001) 339: [H]e drew in his breath – the Indian equivalent to the Western whistle – closed his eyes tight and on reopening them said, ‘Don’t ghabrao (worry) Sahib’.
2005		J. Suraiya in John Entry From Backside Only (2007) 118: Outside gentry not having inside khabar on loins and ‘snakes’ and joos was getting too much shocked and gabhrooed and telling that India is most third class and hopeless place full of rascal people that is best avoid karo.
2005		B. Majumdar Indian Cricket Through the Ages 319: Lack of experience in playing important matches tells on these occasions, and the batsmen were no doubt too easily gabrowed.