What does gobbler mean?
In North American English, a gobbler is a turkey, especially a male turkey. The word is informal but familiar and is strongly associated with Thanksgiving, roast dinners, and the turkey’s distinctive calling sound. A related, less common meaning is a person who gobbles food greedily or voraciously, though this use often carries a mildly critical or humorous tone. Gobbler is formed from the verb gobble with the agentive suffix -er, a productive English pattern for naming someone or something that performs an action. The result is a word that can call to mind both the bird’s behavior and, by extension, its species. In writing, gobbler usually appears in phrases such as Thanksgiving gobbler or roast gobbler, while tom is a more specific traditional term for a male turkey.
nounA turkey, especially a male turkey. Less commonly, a person who gobbles food greedily or voraciously.
- A turkey, especially a male turkey.
- A person who gobbles food greedily or voraciously.
"The Thanksgiving gobbler was roasting in the oven."
"We spotted a wild gobbler strutting across the field."
"After the long hike, the hungry hikers proved to be eager gobblers."
The standard plural is gobblers.
"Several gobblers wandered through the field."
A gobbler is the turkey’s most characteristically American name, turning the bird’s famous call into a word for the whole animal.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Where does gobbler come from?
Gobbler is an English formation made from gobble and the agentive suffix -er, so its development follows the ordinary pattern of turning a verb into a name for one who or that which performs the action. The base verb gobble has long been used both for eating greedily and, in an imitative sense, for a turkey’s calling sound. The related forms gobble, gobbling, and gobblingly belong to the same verbal family, while gobbler developed as the name of the animal associated with that characteristic sound.
How gobbler is actually used
Gobbler is chiefly an informal North American term for a turkey. Its use for a person who eats greedily is also informal and is now less common.
Easily confused with gobbler
Gobble is a verb meaning to eat greedily or make a turkey-like sound, whereas a gobbler is usually the bird itself.