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warble

Verb
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

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The pronunciation guide uses the ARPABET phonetic system—the same system used in speech recognition and text-to-speech applications.

Vowel Examples:
AE1 = cat, bat
EH1 = bed, head
IY1 = see, me
OW1 = go, boat
UW1 = boot, do
Stress Numbers:
0 = no stress (unstressed)
1 = primary stress (loud)
2 = secondary stress (medium)
Example:
AH0 TH IY1 N AH0
= a-THEE-na (Athena)

The stressed syllable (marked with 1) is pronounced louder and clearer than others.

Quick Definition

To sing with trills, quavers, or melodious variations; typically describes the joyful song of birds or sweet voices in pastoral verse.

Detailed Definition
In poetry and older literary usage, to warble often means to sing with a wavering, birdlike quality rather than simply “sing.” It can suggest an affected, ornamental, or slightly comic style of performance, which fits the poem’s mock-ballad tone.
Example
Example in poetry:
“He’d warble and wail with the grace of a goat” humorously contrasts song with poor singing; warble usually means to sing in trills or quick melodic turns, especially like a bird; “A blackbird warbled from the rain-dark yew” uses its natural musical sense; “The kettle warbled on the stove” extends the verb through sound-based personification
Additional Notes
In the line “He'd warble and wail,” the verb is a more literary, less everyday way to describe singing.; Found in the poem, Love is Deaf: The Ballad of Barney McBard by Richard
Also Known As
sing trill chirp
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