[For forms and etymology see the sb.]
† 1. intr. To bubble, bubble up; to give forth a bubbling sound, as a spring, boiling water. Obs.
c. 1325. E. E. Allit. P., B. 1017. Blo, blubrande, & blak, vnblyþe to neȝe.
c. 1340. Gaw. & Gr. Knt., 2174. Þe borne [= rivulet] blubred þerinne, as hit boyled hade.
1750. [R. Pultock], Life P. Wilkins, xii. (1883), 38/2. My kettle … had been boiling, till hearing it blubber very loud … I whipped it off the fire.
2. trans. † a. To allow (tears) to bubble forth, to give copious vent to (tears). Obs. b. To utter or cry out with copious tears and sobs.
1583. Stubbes, Anat. Abus. (1877), 108. Blubbering foorth seas of teares.
1590. Greene, Never too late (1600), 26. The teares trickled down the vermilion of her cheeks, and shee blubbred out this passion.
1720. Gay, Poems (1745), II. 63. She thus begins, And sobbing, blubbers forth her sins.
1749. Fielding, Tom Jones, XVII. iii. Western, whose eyes were full of tears … blubbered out ‘Don’t be chicken-hearted.’
3. intr. To weep effusively; to weep and sob unrestrainedly and noisily. (Generally used contemptuously and in ridicule for ‘weep.’)
c. 1400. Test. Love, II. (1560), 283/1. Han women none other wrech … but blober and wepe till hem list stint.
1530. Palsgr., 458/1. I blober, I wepe, je pleure.
a. 1553. Udall, Royster D., III. iv. What, weep? Fie for shame! And blubber?
1562. Phaër, Æneid, IX. B b iv b. Shee blobbryng still, and kindlyng further greif.
1605. B. Jonson, Volpone, II. vii. Wks. (1616), 477. What, blubbering? Come, drie those teares.
1748. Smollett, Rod. Rand., xliv. (1804), 292. He blubbered like a great school-boy who had been whipt.
1826. Scott, Woodst., iv. Phœbe Mayflower blubbered heartily for company.
1857. Hughes, Tom Brown, viii. (1871), 179. Poor old Diggs is blubbering like a child.
4. trans. To wet profusely or disfigure (the face) with weeping; to beweep. Also fig. (The notion of ‘swell with weeping’ is later, and influenced by BLUBBER a.)
1584. Greene, Card of Fancy, Wks. 1882, IV. 164. Whome he found all blubbered with tears.
1596. Spenser, F. Q., II. i. 13. Her face with teares was fowly blubbered.
a. 1631. Donne, Serm., lv. 553. God sees Teares in the heart of a man before they Blubber his face.
1638. Suckling, Aglaura, V. i. (1646), 56. The pretty flowers blubber’d with dew.
b. transf.
1870. Lowell, Among My Books, Ser. I. (1873), 242. Trammels and pot-hooks which the little … Elkanahs blotted and blubbered across their copy-books.
