Jabberwock
name ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 A fantastical dreaded monster with flaming eyes.
"For it is of their nature that the jabberwocks of historical and antiquarian research burble in the tulgy wood of conjecture, flitting from one tum-tum tree to another."
Example
More examples"For it is of their nature that the jabberwocks of historical and antiquarian research burble in the tulgy wood of conjecture, flitting from one tum-tum tree to another."
Etymology
Nonsense word coined by British author and scholar Lewis Carroll in his poem Jabberwocky (q.v.), from the children's book Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There (1872). Carroll stated later, "The Anglo-Saxon word 'wocer' or 'wocor' signifies 'offspring' or 'fruit' [see oker]. Taking 'jabber' in its ordinary acceptation of 'excited and voluble discussion', this would give the meaning of 'the result of much excited and voluble discussion'..."
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.