drivel

noun

1. (countable, uncountable)Nonsense; senseless talk.

   ““You pay too much attention to such insipid drivel in even mentioning it.””

   “But what drivel I am writing! It is just an attempt to pass the weary time.”

   “A ray of light amid all this nonsense was Gwyn Topham's piece in the Guardian, which was timely, measured, accurate and of appropriate tone. That this single report stood out so clearly as an exemplar is a scathing comment in itself on the volumes of drivel surrounding it.”

   ““Yeah, wading down into the comments. "Winsomely compelling cop-aganda," says C-Rob-69. Oh, wait, that was me.” “Drivel for the unwashed. The Bard, how he weeps.””

2. (countable, rare, uncountable)Saliva, drool.

   “He pauses as I wipe the drivel from his chin.”

   “He wiped drivel from his chin with a stubby forearm.”

   “She wipes some drivel from his chin with a Kleenex, which she throws away in the bin, then sits and clasps his hand in hers.”

3. (obsolete)A servant; a drudge.

   “that foul aged drivel”

4. (obsolete)A fool; an idiot.

   “if thou didst know what a life I lead with that drivel, it would make thee even of pity receive me into thy only comfort”

verb

1. To talk nonsense; to talk senselessly; to drool.
2. (archaic, intransitive)To have saliva drip from the mouth.
3. To be weak or foolish; to dote.

   “This drivelling love is like a great natural, that runs lolling up and down to hide his bauble in a hole.”

   “driveling dotard”

4. (obsolete)To move or travel slowly.

   “But that is a state of things, which must in time work its own cure. We cannot always go dribbling and drivelling along, government and people alike being the scoff of all onlookers.”

   “There was a good deal of bustle and life at the inn; but three or four inebriates drivelling about the premises were 'suffering a recovery,' from the excitement of the previous night's entertainment.”

   “Walter was as silly as most men are when in love. He went drivelling off in pursuit of her "dear little work-worn hands"[.]”

   “Drivelling back to the shanty at midday presented him with a distracting gamble over lunch.”

   “"I am amazed to think we are in the second week of war and this country is still drivelling along with a small volunteer force," he added.”

5. (obsolete)To use up or to be used up.

   “Instead of drivelling away the precious initiative season of life in the vain labour of teaching tuneable voices to sing[.]”

   “It is for the country to say whether we are to keep on in this backward course, whether we are to go on getting deeper and deeper into debt, whether we are to have increased taxation year after year. The bone and sinew of the land is drivelling away.”