tr.v. gar·bled, gar·bling, gar·bles 1. To mix up or distort to such an extent as to make misleading or incomprehensible: The report garbled all the historical facts. 2. To scramble (a signal or message), as by erroneous encoding or faulty transmission. 3. Archaic To sort out; cull. n. The act or an instance of garbling: a garble of nonsense syllables. [Middle English garbelen, to inspect and remove refuse from spices, from Anglo-Norman garbeler, to sift, and from Medieval Latin garbellāre, both from Arabic ġarbala, to select, from ġirbāl, sieve, from Late Latin crībellum, diminutive of Latin crībrum; see krei- in the Appendix of Indo-European roots.] garbler (-blər) n. |
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