Meaning

8 senses

  1. To equip with a gaffle or similar weapon.

  2. To include a gaffle in an orienteering race.

  3. To grab or seize

  4. To get hold of, to find.

  5. To arrest for criminal activity.

  6. To steal

  7. To swindle or bully (someone)

  8. To talk without a purpose, usually about inane or pointless topics; to babble.

Origin

From Middle English gaffolle, a borrowing from Middle Dutch gaffel, gafel (“fork”), ultima

From Middle English gaffolle, a borrowing from Middle Dutch gaffel, gafel (“fork”), ultimately from Proto-West Germanic *gabulu (“fork”), related to Old English gafol, ġeafel (“fork”).

Blend of gaff + grapple.

Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · source

Forms

gaffles, gaffling, gaffled, gaffled
Base formgaffle · to gaffle
3rd person singulargaffles
Present participlegaffling
Past simplegaffled
Past participlegaffled

regular · Lesson

Present simpleLesson

I, you, we, theygaffle
he, she, itgaffles

Past simpleLesson

all personsgaffled

Present perfectLesson

I, you, we, theyhave gaffled
he, she, ithas gaffled

Future simple (will)Lesson

all personswill gaffle

Word family

1 related words
Relatedgiffle-gaffle

Lessons for this word

3 lessons

See also

neighbours in the dictionary
gadgetC1gaffgaffegaggagagaggle
gaffle — meaning, examples, forms, synonyms | Krumeto