Other forms: gurgling, gurgles
To gurgle is to make the bubbling sound of liquid in a narrow pipe. The drain gurgled, a gurgle of water, the baby gurgled.
It happens when air and liquid move through the same opening, which is why drains do it and why a gurgling drain means a partial blockage or a vent problem. A baby's gurgle is one of the first sounds it makes. The word is imitative, as gargle and gurgling stomachs are.
1verbgurgleTo make the bubbling sound of liquid in a narrow pipe.
“The water gurgled down the plughole as the bath emptied.”
gurgle is a bubbling sound.
Gurgle comes from a Middle English word for a rumbling in the belly, and is imitative. Gargle is a relative.
Middle English
gurguling — a rumbling in the belly
English, today
gurgle
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”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA
Practised in Sounds & Noises