warble

UK/ˈwɔːbl̩/US/ˈwɔɹbl̩/

verbC1Rare in speech; mostly a word you read · #12,965 of 15,258leans spoken

Other forms: warbling, warbles, warbled

To warble is to sing with a trembling, rippling voice. The blackbird warbled, a warbling song, warble a tune.

It is a bird's word first and a person's second, where it is usually gently mocking. A warbler is a whole family of small songbirds named for it, and telling them apart by song is one of the hardest skills in birdwatching. Note that the word is probably imitative.

Definitions of warble

1verbwarbleTo sing with a trembling, rippling voice.C1
“A blackbird warbled on the fence as the sun came up.”

warble is a way of singing.

Where it comes from

Warble is probably imitative of the sound, coming into English through Old French from a Germanic source.

Perhaps imitative of the sound.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in Birds

Practise this word

warble in the wild

Botflies, also known as warble flies, heel flies, and gadflies, are flies of the family Oestridae.
Botfly
Adult warble flies are large, hairy and bumblebee-like and brown, orange or yellow in color.
Warble fly
The Hypodermatinae include large parasitic flies, some of which are known as warble flies.
Hypodermatinae
O how shall I warble Introduction and Fugue.
When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd (Hindemith)
Hypoderma tarandi, also known as the reindeer warble fly and reindeer botfly, is a species of warble fly that is parasitic on reindeer.
Hypoderma tarandi

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From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

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