tattle
Part of speech: verb
noun
Morphological type: simple
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.
Inflected forms:
form: tattles
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: tattling
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: tattled
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: tattled
pos: verb
tags: past
form: tattles
pos: noun
tags: plural
Senses:
gloss: To chatter; to gossip.
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
examples: 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.
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; […]
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.
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.
gloss: 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.
pos: verb
tags: Canada
US
derogatory
intransitive
examples: 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.
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
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.
gloss: To speak like a baby or young child; to babble, to prattle; to speak haltingly; to stutter.
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
obsolete
examples: 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.
gloss: A tattletale.
pos: noun
tags: countable
examples: We agree on almost nothing, everything is a battle / Every secret from him is kept, his rep is being a tattle
gloss: Often said of children: a piece of incriminating information or an account of wrongdoing that is said about another person.
pos: noun
tags: Canada
US
countable
derogatory
examples: Have a special small bucket called the tattle bucket. Make name cards for each child. […] When children have a tattle, instead of disrupting the class, they get their name card and put it in the tattle bucket. Look in the bucket at varying times during the day. If you see a name card, go to the child and say, "I see you have your name card in the tattle bucket. What would you like to tell me?" Many times, children will have forgotten all about the tattle.
gloss: Idle talk; gossip; (countable) an instance of such talk or gossip.
pos: noun
tags: uncountable
examples: Prattles and Tattles, / O'er Bottles, / Shall ſtill cheriſh my Fancy, / Better, and ſweeter, / And greater, / Than dull Tea with Nancy.
But, as ill tongues are never wanting to disturb the repose of honest families, there was such a tattle about my wife going to dress the corregidor's victuals, make his bed, and the like, that all the town rang of it.
Synonyms: informant
gossiper
chatter
clatfart
goss
gossip
gossipry
labrish
scuttlebutt
skeet
tale
tattle
tidbit
tittle-tattle
twittle-twattle
Related words: snitches get stitches
twattle
gossip column
hoax
indiscretion
lie
rumour
slander
scandal sheet
slambook
tab
tabloid
yellow press
gossiper
Derived words: tattleware
Translations: