bubbling

1. 1
   verb

   Present participle and gerund of bubble.

   Mud was bubbling up through cracks in the ground near the geyser.

   The pot started bubbling as the heat increased under it.

   Note

   One spelling does two jobs here. After a form of be it builds the progressive (the pot was bubbling), and on its own it serves as a verbal noun (bubbling means the water is hot). It carries the senses of bubble, from the figurative churning of feeling to the Northern English and Scottish use for crying. When it names a distinct occurrence, it becomes the noun for the motion itself.

2. 2
   noununcountable

   The activity of a liquid or other substance as bubbles form, rise, and break in it.

   The constant bubbling of the hot spring drew curious visitors all afternoon.

   A faint bubbling rose from the pot as the broth came to a simmer.

   Similargurgling, fizzing, burbling, simmering

   Note

   Unlike the verbal form, this noun can be counted and made plural. Frederick Niven's The Lost Cabin Mine (1908) hears "a multitude of soft bubblings and squelchings" beside the hiss of the rain. The plural breaks a continuous motion into separate small sounds, so it sits easily alongside other sound nouns. In the singular it usually takes of, as in the bubbling of a spring.

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