I. ˈrabəl noun
( -s )
Etymology: Middle English rabel; perhaps akin to rabble (IV)
1. : a pack, string, or swarm of animals or insects
great rabbles of rats roamed the streets — Elizabeth Enright
2.
a. dialect chiefly England : a confused or meaningless string of words : rigmarole
b. : a heterogeneous, disorganized, or confused collection of things
giant trees under whose dense canopy the alien and tangled rabble of the jungle does not thrive — P.B.Sears
3.
a. : a disorganized or disorderly crowd of people
a mere rabble of field hands pretending to be soldiers — Kenneth Roberts
: mob
besieged by a rabble of small children — Sacheverell Sitwell
b. : a group, class, or body regarded with contempt
a rabble of nobility … conspires to mount a gruesome charade — Time
c. : the lowest class of people
in the Civil War, the rabble made common cause with the … nobility against the middle classes — Roy Lewis & Angus Maude
: persons of the lowest class
the London rabble , chimney sweepers, watermen, costermongers, thieves — E.G.Johnson
II. adjective
1. : of, relating to, or forming a rabble
those were the enemy, a rabble crew — S.L.Gwynn
2. : resembling or suited to a rabble
to burn the jails … was a good rabble trick — Samuel Johnson
III. transitive verb
( rabbled ; rabbled ; rabbling -b(ə)liŋ ; rabbles )
1. : to insult or assault by a mob : mob
2. : to mob and drive out
members of the Scottish Episcopalian clergy were often rabbleed during the English Revolution
IV. verb
( -ed/-ing/-s )
Etymology: Middle English rablen; akin to Dutch rabbelen to chatter, rattle, Low German rabbeln
dialect chiefly Britain : babble
V. noun
( -s )
Etymology: French râble fire shovel, from Middle French roable, from Medieval Latin rotabulum, from Latin rutabulum, from rutus, past participle of ruere to dig up, rake up — more at rug
1. obsolete : a charcoal burner's shovel
2.
a. : an iron bar with the end bent for use like a rake used in puddling iron
b. : any similar device (as a rotating arm with a scraper) for skimming the bath in a melting or refining furnace or for stirring the ore in a roasting furnace by hand or mechanically
VI. transitive verb
( -ed/-ing/-s )
: to stir, skim, or gather with a rabble