rabble
rabble Lexical Profile
rabble Game Scores & Validity
• noun
A disorderly, noisy, or tumultuous crowd of people; a mob.
"The town guards struggled to disperse the angry rabble gathered outside the courthouse."
Ordinary people or the lower socioeconomic classes, viewed contemptuously as ignorant or uncouth (usually preceded by 'the').
"The aristocrats looked down upon the rabble and refused to address their grievances."
An iron bar or rake-like implement with a bent end, used in metallurgy for stirring and skimming molten metal or ore in a furnace.
"The foundry worker used a long iron rabble to agitate the molten charge inside the reverberatory furnace."
• verb
To stir, skim, or work (molten metal or ore) with an iron rabble in a furnace.
"During the puddling process, the smelter had to rabble the molten iron continuously to oxidize impurities."
Scottish To speak or read in a rapid, confused, or incoherent manner; to gabble.
"He began to rabble through the long speech so quickly that the audience could barely follow a word."
Word Nuance & Usage
When referring to ordinary people ('the rabble'), the term is strongly pejorative and elitist, implying that the masses are unruly or beneath contempt.
• Rhymes for rabble
Word Origin & Etymology
The crowd sense dates to Middle English (originally meaning a pack of animals or string of words), likely related to Middle Dutch rabbelen ('to chatter or babble'). The metallurgical tool sense is a separate 17th-century borrowing from French râble ('fire shovel or stirrer'), from Latin rutabulum.
Usage Trend
Historical frequency of usage in published text.