Skip to content
ontologydriven
Sign out

Dictionary

Words, grammatical forms and meanings linked to the ontology.

clabber en · NOUN

Pronunciation

  • (Southern-England) audio
  • /ˈklæb.ə(ɹ)/

Etymology

Shortening of bonny clabber, from Irish bainne clábar (“mud, thick milk for churning”) or a Scots Gaelic cognate thereof; the latter is probably related to láib (“dirt, mud, filth”).

Meanings

  1. (uncountable) Sour or curdled milk.
    • Even butter had proved beyond her means, for the milk she had tried to churn had never firmed up beyond the consistency of runny clabber. 1997, Charles Frazier, chapter 2, in Cold Mountain, London: Hodder and Stoughton, page 25:
  2. (uncountable) Wet clay or mud.

Forms

SpellingFeaturesLabelsSource
clauber alternative lexicographic

Relateds

bonnyclabber

clabber en · VERB

Pronunciation

  • (Southern-England) audio
  • /ˈklæb.ə(ɹ)/

Etymology

Shortening of bonny clabber, from Irish bainne clábar (“mud, thick milk for churning”) or a Scots Gaelic cognate thereof; the latter is probably related to láib (“dirt, mud, filth”).

Meanings

  1. To sour or curdle.
    • They always had more milk than they needed and often entire buckets would clabber and one of her brothers would carry it out to the bunkhouse for the vaqueros. 2013, Philipp Meyer, The Son, Simon & Schuster, published 2014, page 148:

Forms

SpellingFeaturesLabelsSource
clabbered Tense=Past, VerbForm=Part lexicographic
clabbered Tense=Past lexicographic
clauber alternative lexicographic
clabbers Number=Sing, Person=3, Tense=Pres lexicographic
clabbering Tense=Pres, VerbForm=Part lexicographic

Deriveds

clabber up