kabbeln
German, verb/kabl̩n/
kabbeln is spelled K-A-B-B-E-L-N (7 letters) and appears about once in every 24 million words in written German, the 282,248th most frequent German word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). Kabbeln is a German verb meaning “to tease each other, to fight with each other in a not dangerous way” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The German Wiktionary defines it as “sich (auf harmlose, unernste Weise) streiten (oder raufen)”.
What does kabbeln mean in English?
verb
- 1
to tease each other, to fight with each other in a not dangerous way
Unsre beiden Jungs kabbeln sich immer so'n bisschen.
Source: English Wiktionary, German section, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0).
How German dictionaries define it
verb: 1. sich (auf harmlose, unernste Weise) streiten (oder raufen) 2. kabbelig sein, gegeneinander laufende Wellen aufweisen
The definition in the German Wiktionary, in German.
Source: German Wiktionary, dump of September 1, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org.
Forms of kabbeln
- kabbelt present singular third-person
- kabbelte past
- gekabbelt participle past
- haben auxiliary
- kabbelnd participle present
- kabble first-person indicative present
- kabbele first-person indicative present
- kabbel first-person indicative present
- kabbelst indicative present second-person
- kabbelest second-person singular subjunctive
- kabblest second-person singular subjunctive
- kabbelet plural second-person subjunctive
- kabblet plural second-person subjunctive
- kabbelten first-person indicative plural
- kabbeltest indicative preterite second-person
- kabbeltet indicative plural preterite
- kabble! imperative singular
- kabbelt! imperative plural
Source: English Wiktionary and German Wiktionary (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026).
How do you pronounce kabbeln?
- /kabl̩n/
- [ˈkabl̩n]
Sources: English Wiktionary, German Wiktionary (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026); recordings from Wikimedia Commons.
How common is kabbeln in German?
kabbeln appears about once in every 24 million words in written German.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).