barbotear

Essentially a variant of barbotar, meaning to mutter or mumble words indistinctly; an older, now-archaic sense also meant to barricade a door or fortify a place, but that use has disappeared. The "mutter" sense is the one still occasionally seen in literary writing.

• Barboteaba respuestas que nadie lograba entender. — He mumbled answers no one could make out.
• El niño barboteó una disculpa a medias. — The kid mumbled a half-hearted apology.
• Es casi idéntico a barbotar, aunque menos usado. — It's almost identical to barbotar, though less used.

Practically interchangeable with the more common barbotar — a learner encountering either can treat them as the same word.

Often confused with barbotar.