/drivel-meaning

-) Verb.

-) Pronunciation and accent: drɪv(ə)l.

-) Etymology: from Middle English drevelen.

-) Preterite tense: driveled or drivelled.

-) Preterite participle: driveled or drivelled.

-) Present participle: drivelling or driveling. 

-) Documented since 1000.

-) Intransitively: -) 1. (Of a person) to let saliva flow from the mouth.

-) Translation: baver, in French; babear, in Spanish; sbavare, in Italian.

-) Synonyms for “drivel”: slaver, dribble, drool, slobber.

-) 2. (Of saliva or slaver) to flow from the mouth.

… his clothes were stained by the saliva that occasionally driveled from his lips.

T. Holcroft… The Adventures… 1794

'Give me a shilling!' was her reply, while the slaver drivelled unrestrained from her mouth, rendering utterly disgusting a chin that a statuary might have wished to model.

F. Burney… Camilla… 1796

-) 3. (Of a person) to talk foolishly, as if he/she were an infant.

… all those pitiful things over which he drivelled and doted were unworthy of a thought, an effort, or a pang.

G. James… A book of the passions… 1839

-) Words derived from “drivel”: driveller, drivelling, drivellingly.

 

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