garble

garble
 
What It Means
 
To garble something, such as a word, name, message, etc., is to cause it to be unclear or distorted. This type of garbling can be the result of an accident, ignorance, or a transmission error. Garble can also mean "to so alter or distort as to create a wrong impression or change the meaning."
 
// I was so nervous I garbled their names.


garble
New

verb
2

garble
1 of 2
verb
 
garbled; garbling ;g;r-b(;-)li;
Synonyms of garble
transitive verb

1
a
: to so alter or distort as to create a wrong impression or change the meaning
garble a story
b
: to introduce textual error into (a message) by inaccurate encipherment, transmission, or decipherment
2
: to sift impurities from
3
archaic : cull sense 1
garbler

garble

2 of 2
noun
1
: an act or an instance of garbling
2
: the impurities removed from spices in sifting


Did you know?

Garble is a word with a spicy history, and we're not just saying that to curry favor with gastronomes. It is presumed that this word was passed from Arabic to Mediterranean Europe through trade in Eastern spices, and was first introduced into English from the Anglo-French verb garbeler, used for the action of sifting out impurities—such as dust, dirt, husks, etc.—from spices. In the 15th century, the English garble carried this same meaning as well as "to cull," i.e., to sort or pick out the best parts of something. If these origins seem curious given garble’s now more common meanings of "to so alter or distort as to create a wrong impression" and "to cause to be unclear or confusing; to introduce error into," consider that one way of garbling someone’s story is to take bits and pieces out of context.

Synonyms
Verb

bend
color
cook
distort
falsify
fudge
misinterpret
misrelate
misrepresent
misstate
pervert
slant
twist
warp
Examples of garble in a Sentence
Verb
the candidate complained that his views had been deliberately garbled by his opponent
garbled spices are less likely to contaminate a recipe
Recent Examples on the Web
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More
Verb
SecNav’s just a big fan, and that message got garbled in a chain-of-command game of telephone.
—Sara Netzley, EW.com, 11 Feb. 2025
Without such compatibility, data can be garbled or lost when moving from the radio to the baseband unit, or vice versa.
—IEEE Spectrum, 23 Apr. 2021
Noun
Voters can expect to hear a lot from Republicans about her many early gaffes and garble.
—Mark Z. Barabak, Los Angeles Times, 21 July 2024
This is cumbersome, which is why some Web3 companies have carved out a small but profitable niche to allow users to translate their wallet address from alphanumeric garble to a username, or from 0xAA2B52A6DF7DBFD07640BDA2B373D37BACD81DF5 to simple.nft.
—Ben Weiss, Fortune Crypto, 17 July 2023