1601. Shakspeare, Twelfth Night, Act II., Sc. iii. Mal. … Have you no wit, manners, nor honesty, but to gabble like tinkers at this time of night.
1663. Butler, Hudibras, pt. I., ch. i., p. 5. Which made some think when he did gabble Th’ had heard three Labourers of Babel.
1786. Burns, Earnest Cry and Prayer, st. 10. But could I like Montgomeries fight, Or gab like Boswell.
1880. G. R. Sims, Zeph, ch. vii. An elderly clergyman … gabbled the funeral service as though he were calling back an invoice at a draper’s entering desk.
1887. Punch, 10 Sept., p. 111. Gals do like a chap as can gab.
Gift of the Gab (or Gob), subs. phr. (colloquial).—The gift of conversation; the talent for speech. Fr., n’avoir pas sa langue dans sa poche.
d. 1653. Z. Boyd, Book of Job, quoted in Brewer’s Phrase and Fable, s.v., ‘gab. There was a good man named Job, Who lived in the land of Uz, He had a good gift of the gob.’
1690. B. E., New Dict. of the Canting Crew. Gift of the gob, a wide, open Mouth; also a good Songster, or Singing-master.
1785. Grose, Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue, s.v.
1820. Shelley, Œdipus Tyrannus, Act I. You, Purganax, who have the gift o’ the gab, Make them a solemn speech. [[95]]