blab

/blæb/

Other forms: blabbed; blabbing; blabs

To blab is to gossip about or reveal a secret you promised to keep. You might accidentally blab to your dad about your brother getting in trouble at school.

A reporter could take you by surprise and get you to blab about your movie star neighbor, and it might be hard for a little kid not to blab about the birthday gift he's giving his sister. Another way to blab is simply to talk a lot: "I sat there and listened to him blab about all the famous people he knows." Blab comes from the Middle English blabbe, "one who does not control his tongue."

Definitions of blab

1. verb

   speak (about unimportant matters) rapidly and incessantly
   synonyms: blabber, chatter, clack, gabble, gibber, maunder, palaver, piffle, prate, prattle, tattle, tittle-tattle, twaddle, yammer

   types:

   babble, blather, blether, blither, smatter

   talk foolishly

   type of:

   mouth, speak, talk, utter, verbalise, verbalize

   express in speech
2. verb

   divulge confidential information or secrets
   synonyms: babble, babble out, blab out, let the cat out of the bag, peach, sing, spill the beans, talk, tattle

   spill, talk

   reveal information

   type of:

   break, bring out, disclose, discover, divulge, expose, give away, let on, let out, reveal, unwrap

   make known to the public information that was previously known only to a few people or that was meant to be kept a secret