Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A strain of clear, rapidly uttered, gliding tones; a trilling, flexible melody; a carol; a song; any soft sweet flow of melodious sounds.
  • In falconry, to cross the wings upon the back.
  • noun A small, hard swelling on the back of a horse, produced by the galling of the saddle.
  • noun A tumor on the back of cattle or doer, produced by the larva of a bot-fly or gadfly.
  • noun An insect or its larva which produces warbles. Also warbeetle. Compare wabble.
  • To sing with trills and quavering, or melodious turns, as a bird; carol or sing with sweetly trilling notes.
  • To sound vibratingly, or with free, smooth, and rapid modulations of pitch; quaver.
  • To yodel.
  • To sing or utter with quavering trills or turns: as, to warble a song.
  • To describe or celebrate in song.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • intransitive verb To be quavered or modulated; to be uttered melodiously.
  • intransitive verb To sing in a trilling manner, or with many turns and variations.
  • intransitive verb To sing with sudden changes from chest to head tones; to yodel.
  • noun A small, hard tumor which is produced on the back of a horse by the heat or pressure of the saddle in traveling.
  • noun A small tumor produced by the larvæ of the gadfly in the backs of horses, cattle, etc. Called also warblet, warbeetle, warnles.
  • noun (Zoöl.) See Wormil.
  • transitive verb To sing in a trilling, quavering, or vibratory manner; to modulate with turns or variations; to trill.
  • transitive verb To utter musically; to modulate; to carol.
  • transitive verb To cause to quaver or vibrate.
  • noun A quavering modulation of the voice; a musical trill; a song.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb to modulate a tone's frequency
  • verb to sing like a bird, especially with trills.
  • noun a lesion under the skin of cattle, caused by the larva of a bot fly of genus Hypoderma.
  • noun military In naval mine warfare, the process of varying the frequency of sound produced by a narrow band noisemaker to ensure that the frequency to which the mine will respond is covered.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb sing by changing register; sing by yodeling
  • noun a lumpy abscess under the hide of domestic mammals caused by larvae of a botfly or warble fly
  • verb sing or play with trills, alternating with the half note above or below

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English werble, (at least for the noun) from Frankish werbel (mole cricket), cognate to Walloon waerbea.

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Examples

  • They were jubilant that they'd caught somebody, but I couldn't tell if the warble was a victory salute or a sign of even worse things to come.

    Bravo-Two-Zero McNab, Andy 1993

  • Perceiving that we are watching him the grosbeak ceases his ringing tones and drops into that dreamy, soft, melodious warble, which is characteristic of this songster as it is of the catbird.

    Some Spring Days in Iowa Frederick John Lazell 1905

  • I address my comment to you as I understand what "warble" was trying to say.

    Balkinization 2004

  • I address my comment to you as I understand what "warble" was trying to say.

    Balkinization 2004

  • When he tastes the plum he utters a series of _ahs_, and produces a kind of warble by prolonging some of his notes and shortening up others.

    Scientific American Supplement, No. 841, February 13, 1892 Various

  • As we warble about tidings of comfort and joy, we have cause to consider if we are all doing enough to bring such lyrics to life.

    David Katz, M.D.: Dignifying Health: Why Not Quite Everything Is Relative M.D. David Katz 2011

  • As we warble about tidings of comfort and joy, we have cause to consider if we are all doing enough to bring such lyrics to life.

    David Katz, M.D.: Dignifying Health: Why Not Quite Everything Is Relative M.D. David Katz 2011

  • As we warble about tidings of comfort and joy, we have cause to consider if we are all doing enough to bring such lyrics to life.

    David Katz, M.D.: Dignifying Health: Why Not Quite Everything Is Relative M.D. David Katz 2011

  • It began to warble, and a regular waveform began to scroll across the screen.

    Star Trek The Next Generation® David A. McIntee 2011

  • Lights and warning sirens and warble tones and all that going off.

    How the End Begins Ron Rosenbaum 2011

  • In between those, there’s also the warble—when air pressure causes a flute to attempt to play two notes at the same time—which I think of as a horizon, which the melody plays off of.

    Brontomancy Timothy Archambault and Raven Chacon 2023

  • In the Western methodology, the warble is going up to its octave, eight different chromatic tones higher, and back down, in rapid succession, which is quite fascinating.

    Brontomancy Timothy Archambault and Raven Chacon 2023

  • On the technical side, the warble is a multiphonic oscillation.

    Brontomancy Timothy Archambault and Raven Chacon 2023

  • In the Western methodology, the warble is going up to its octave, eight different chromatic tones higher, and back down, in rapid succession, which is quite fascinating.

    Brontomancy Timothy Archambault and Raven Chacon 2023

  • On the technical side, the warble is a multiphonic oscillation.

    Brontomancy Timothy Archambault and Raven Chacon 2023

  • In between those, there’s also the warble—when air pressure causes a flute to attempt to play two notes at the same time—which I think of as a horizon, which the melody plays off of.

    Brontomancy Timothy Archambault and Raven Chacon 2023

Comments

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  • Reports, unfortunately, indicate

    Warble infections reaching record peaks.

    - Peter Reading, you Can't Be Too Careful, from Fiction, 1979

    June 26, 2008

  • In A Clockwork Orange's adolescent slang "Nadsat", warble means "song".

    January 7, 2009