churgle

present singular third person churgles · participle present churgling · participle past churgled · past churgled

1. To chuckle and gurgle at the same time

   They knew they were going to have a whacking great feast before long and the fact that it was none other than Boggis's chickens they were going to eat made them churgle with laughter every time they thought of it.

   1970, Roald Dahl, Fantastic Mr. Fox, Harmondsworth: Puffin Books (1974), page 56

   3 more examples

   He was a very grave man habitually, but a churgle (if for once I may be guilty of word-coining) a sort of cross between a chuckle and a gurgle, was audible in his fat throat as he walked over the thick red carpet of the corridor with his salver in his hand.

   1899, John Ayscough, “Outsiders”, in Temple Bar, volume 118, page 169

   She like to romp with Ossi. He know how to make she squeal and churgle till Lynette have to tell him, "Stop! You go give the child short breath." But she like me better. I have a way with she, like something, Lynette don't know what.

   2001, Oonya Kempadoo, Tide Running, Picador

   Beth quickly signs to her and points at Cassie. Summer laughs. I haven't heard her laugh before. It's an interesting laugh, somewhere between a gurgle and a chortle. A churgle? A gortle? I'm reminded of when she was with her friends at the cafe and the strange noises they made.

   2015, Kathryn Lomer, Talk Under Water, University of Queensland Press, →ISBN

2. To hum or rumble, as an engine

   Two motorboats covered with cameras churgle out and find me. I am circled and clicked at—talk about self-conscious!

   1995, David Hays, Daniel Hays, My Old Man and the Sea: A Father and Son Sail Around Cape Horn, Chapel Hill, NC: Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, page 214

   2 more examples

   In the distance, riding from one valley to another, the train whistle sounded. The waiting men stiffened. An occasional crow swooped over them, crying noisily, the only other sound the slowly rising churgle of the train.

   1952, Dorothy Salisbury Davis, The Clay Hand

   He stopped the car in the middle of the dark road. The wind against the flat side of the little square vehicle rocked it slightly. There was no sound above the low churgle of the engine.

   2009, Robert Flanagan, Involuntary Tour, AuthorHouse, →ISBN, page 59