Gurgle

//ˈɡɜː.ɡl̩// noun, verb

noun, verb ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A gurgling sound.

    "Then the conversation broke off, and there was little more talking, only a noise of men going backwards and forwards, and of putting down of kegs and the hollow gurgle of good liquor being poured from breakers into the casks."

  2. 2
    the bubbling sound of water flowing from a bottle with a narrow neck wordnet
Verb
  1. 1
    To flow with a bubbling sound.

    "The bath water gurgled down the drain."

  2. 2
    utter with a gurgling sound wordnet
  3. 3
    To make such a sound.

    "The baby gurgled with delight."

  4. 4
    drink from a flask with a gurgling sound wordnet
  5. 5
    make sounds similar to gurgling water wordnet
Show 1 more definition
  1. 6
    flow in an irregular current with a bubbling noise wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
guggleripplebabblebabblebabblingblubber

Example

More examples

"Aniq turned slowly at the sound of the needy, narcissistic gurgle that sounded from behind him."

Etymology

Back formation from Middle English gurguling (“a rumbling in the belly”). Akin to Middle Dutch gorgelen (“to gurgle”), Middle Low German gorgelen (“to gurgle”), German gurgeln (“to gargle”), and perhaps to Latin gurguliō (“throat”).

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.