To garble means to distort or scramble a message so badly that it becomes confusing or impossible to understand. When you garble something, you mix it up, leaving out important parts or adding errors that change the meaning.

Imagine playing the game of telephone, where one person whispers a message to the next person, who whispers it to the next, and so on. By the time the message reaches the last person, it's often completely garbled: “Please bring blue balloons” might become “Cheese string flew baboons.” The original message got twisted and confused along the way.

Technology can garble messages too. A bad phone connection might garble your words, making “I'll meet you at six” sound like “I'll eat stew and bricks.” Old radios sometimes garbled important transmissions, which is why pilots and sailors developed special alphabets (Alpha, Bravo, Charlie) to communicate clearly even through static.

You can also garble something yourself by explaining it poorly. If you try to repeat complicated instructions but leave out key steps or mix up the order, you've garbled them.