Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A drinking fountain.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun . One who cheats.
  • noun A fish of the family Sciænidæ, Aplodinotus grunniens, the fresh-water drumfish, found in the waters of the Ohio river: so called from the peculiar noise it makes. Also called bubbling-fish.

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

  • transitive verb To cheat; to deceive.
  • noun One who cheats.
  • noun (Zoöl.) A fish of the Ohio river; -- so called from the noise it makes.

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

  • noun Something that emits bubbles.
  • noun New England, Australia A drinking fountain.
  • noun A device used for smoking marijuana, similar to a cannabis pipe but with a section that holds water, like a bong
  • noun obsolete One who cheats.
  • noun US A fish of the Ohio river; so called from the noise it makes.

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

  • noun a public fountain to provide a jet of drinking water
  • noun any of various devices in which air or some other gas is bubbled through a liquid

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From bubble +‎ -er. In the drinking fountain sense, coined and trademarked by the Kohler Water Works (now Kohler Company) of Kohler, Wisconsin in 1888, and so called because of the bubbling action of the water, particularly in a vertical stream.

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Examples

  • It’s a brain bubbler and less hardened folk may wind up having a stroke.

    Current Movie Reviews, Independent Movies - Film Threat 2002

  • Banning bottles has proved a boon for the humble bubbler, which is enjoying a resurgence in schools and public spaces.

    The Sydney Morning Herald News Headlines 2010

  • "bubbler" - style water fountains, with two - or five-gallon jugs upended over an electric dispenser/cooler.

    Sustainablog Shel Horowitz 2010

  • We drank water out of a 'bubbler' rather than a water fountain.

    World Hum 2009

  • And of course Milwaukee is also home to the relatively unique terms "bubbler" (drinking fountain) and "TYME Machine" (ATM).

    doggdot.us 2008

  • Of course, this confused the hell out of me when I first moved down here! sam, "bubbler" is common in Northern New England as well.

    doggdot.us 2008

  • "The bubbler is a tank containing a mixture of water and hydrocarbons (gasoline, diesel, kerosene, crude oils and others derived from hydrocarbons ...).

    Original Signal - Transmitting Digg 2009

  • “Can I get a bottle of Perrier?” he begs, and the CIA officers lead him to a bubbler in the lobby for a swig of water that appears to revive him.

    With Torture Banned, US Tries High School Awards Night Con Chapman 2011

  • A helmet-to-helmet hit that led to a player being removed from competition was called a "snot bubbler" and considered a "clean hit."

    Use your head? Dr. Mark Adickes 2010

  • Hi, I have stummbled accoss this in my search to see if there is a larger screen available for the ipod touch, I do not want to replace the ipod, just be able to plug it in to a larger screen which I want to mount in a 1960′s bubbler juke box front.

    Why I Think Apple’s Touchscreen Netbook Is Real 2009

Comments

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  • "The Goanna, like a lot of us raised in schools where you could simply wander up to a bubbler if you were thirsty, turned green with envy years ago when he realised various brilliant individuals and then big companies had cottoned on to the idea that you could fill a bottle with water - essentially, the same stuff that comes out of our taps and those handy old bubblers - and flog it off for somewhere between 250-10,000 times what it was worth, depending on the brand."

    - Tony Wright, Bundy-on-tap gives the Immigration Department a liquid lesson, theage.com.au, 28 September 2009.

    September 28, 2009

  • "A fish of the family Sciænidæ, Aplodinotus grunniens, the fresh-water drumfish, found in the waters of the Ohio river: so called from the peculiar noise it makes. Also called bubbling-fish."

    --CD&C

    February 21, 2012