tattle
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈtæt(ə)l/
ipa: /ˈtætl̩/
ipa: [-æɾl̩]
rhymes: -ætəl
Forms: form: tattles
form: tattling
form: tattled
form: tattled
Etymology: From Middle Dutch tatelen, tateren (“to babble, chatter”) (modern Dutch tatelen, tateren (“to talk, chatter”)), originally imitative. The word is cognate with Saterland Frisian tätelje (“to talk nonsense, babble”), Middle Low German tāteren, tadderen (“to babble, chatter”) (whence modern German Low German tatern (“to chatter”)), Low German tateln, täteln (“to cackle, gabble”). Compare also Middle English dadel, dadull (“tattling, gossip”), and its alteration twaddle.
Senses: examples: text: He were an excellent man that were made iuſt in the mid-way between him and Benedick, the one is too like an image and ſaies nothing, and the other too like my ladies eldeſt ſonne, euermore tatling.
ref: 1598–1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, Much Adoe about Nothing. […], quarto edition, London: […] V[alentine] S[immes] for Andrew Wise, and William Aspley, published 1600, →OCLC, [Act II, scene i]:
text: By this time, My Lord, I doubt not but that you wonder, why I have run off from my Biaſs ſo long together, and made ſo tedious a Digreſſion from Satire to Heroique Poetry. But if You will not excuſe it, by the tattling Quality of Age, which, as Sir William Davenant ſays, is always Narrative; yet I hope the uſefulneſs of what I have to ſay on this Subject, will qualifie the remoteneſs of it; […]
ref: 1693, John Dryden, “[The Dedication]”, in The Satires of Decimus Junius Juvenalis. Translated into English Verse. […] Together with the Satires of Aulus Persius Flaccus. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson […], →OCLC, page ix:
text: Nor can any Man be either wiſe or happy till he hath arrived to that greatneſs of Mind, that no more conſiders the tatling of the multitude than the whiſtling of the Wind.
ref: 1700, Joseph Glanvil [i.e., Joseph Glanvill], “The Preface”, in Saducismus Triumphatus: Or, Full and Plain Evidence Concerning Witches and Apparitions. In Two Parts. […], 3rd edition, London: Printed for A. L. and sold by Roger Tuckyr, […], →OCLC:
text: She tattled on: first to one, then to the other—then to all, till she had tattled herself out of breath;—and then the orthodox half hour had expired, and the bell was rung, and the carriage ordered, and Mrs. Hare rose to depart.
ref: 1838, [Edward Bulwer-Lytton], chapter VII, in Alice or The Mysteries […], volume I, London: Saunders and Otley, […], →OCLC, book III, pages 297–298:
glosses: To chatter; to gossip.
examples: text: There are some children who just like to talk about others. They are not reporting. They are tattling, telling one negative after another. Their goal is to get others in trouble. […] Children sometimes do not mean to tattle about someone else. They do it because they are having a problem with another child and just don't know any other way to handle the problem.
ref: 2009, Maryln Appelbaum, “How to Handle Children Who are Disruptive”, in How to Handle Hard-to-handle Preschoolers: A Guide for Early Childhood Educators, Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Corwin Press, SAGE Publishing; Appelbaum Training Institute, →ISBN, page 4:
text: I trapped the girls inside their tent / Someone tattled on me / Put a frog in the bathroom vent / Someone tattled on me / Gave my dinner to a bear / Put a snake in Auntie's chair / And a tick in Gramp's rootbeer / Someone tattled on me
ref: 2009, Renee Gregory, “I’m Gettin’ Broccoli for Dinner”, in Bugs, Bears and S’mores: Songs of the Great Outdoors, Pittsburgh, Pa.: RoseDog Books, →ISBN, page 100:
text: Vera is a kindergarten student who loves to be the center of adult attention. She has a quick temper and frequently talks out in class. She also frequently "tattles" on other students.
ref: 2015, Deanne A. Crone, Leanne S. Hawken, Robert H. Horner, “Conducting a Functional Behavioral Assessment”, in Building Positive Behavior Support Systems in Schools: Functional Behavioral Assessment, 2nd edition, New York, N.Y.; London: The Guilford Press, →ISBN, part II (Embedding Functional Behavioral Assessment within School Systems: Case Examples), page 39:
glosses: Often said of children: to report incriminating information about another person, or a person's wrongdoing in an annoying fashion, usually to a person in a position of authority over the accused person; to tell on somebody.
examples: text: But who can give to his leasing a conclusion, and pronounce it without tatelying, like as it were written tofore him, and that he can so blind the people that his leasing shall better be believed than the truth: that is the man.
ref: 1481, “The History of Reynard the Fox”, in William Caxton, transl., edited by Henry Morley, Early Prose Romances: […] (The Carisbrooke Library; IV), London: George Routledge and Sons, […], published 1889, →OCLC, chapter XXVII (How Reynart the Fox Came another Time to the Court), page 108:
glosses: To speak like a baby or young child; to babble, to prattle; to speak haltingly; to stutter.
Synonyms: sense: to chatter
word: prattle
sense: to report incriminating information or wrongdoing
word: rat out
Derived terms: sense: Terms derived from tattle (verb)
word: tattler
sense: Terms derived from tattle (verb)
word: tattlesome
sense: Terms derived from tattle (verb)
word: tattletale
sense: Terms derived from tattle (verb)
word: tattle tell
sense: Terms derived from tattle (verb)
word: tattling
sense: Terms derived from tattle (verb)
word: tittle-tattle