chatter
Part of speech: noun
verb
Morphological type: simple
Etymology: Etymology tree
Middle English cheteren, chiteren (Imitative)der.
Middle English chateren
English chatter
From Middle English chateren, from earlier cheteren, chiteren (“to twitter, chatter, jabber”), of imitative origin. Compare Saterland Frisian tjoaterje (“to chatter”), West Frisian tsjotterje (“to chatter”), Dutch schateren, schetteren (“chatter”), Dutch koeteren (“jabber”), Middle Low German kidderen (“to chatter”), German Low German queteln (“to chatter”), dialectal German kaudern (“to gobble (like a turkey)”), Danish kvidre (“to twitter, chirp”).
Inflected forms:
form: chatters
pos: noun
tags: plural
form: chatters
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: chattering
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: chattered
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: chattered
pos: verb
tags: past
Senses:
gloss: Talk, especially meaningless or unimportant talk.
pos: noun
tags: uncountable
usually
examples: Although hardly coming under my theme, I cannot omit this: "Against a woman's chatter: Taste at night fasting a root of radish, that day the chatter cannot harm thee."
gloss: The sound of talking.
pos: noun
tags: uncountable
usually
gloss: The vocalisations of a Eurasian magpie, Pica pica.
pos: noun
tags: uncountable
usually
gloss: The vocalisations of various birds or other animals.
pos: noun
tags: uncountable
usually
examples: The hare cried and complained of the terrible February cold and the disgusting chatter of the owls[.]
At dawn and at sunset the howler monkeys screamed together and the parakeets broke into shrill chatter, but during the hot hours of the day only the full drone of insects, like the beat of a distant surf, filled the ear, while nothing moved amid the solemn vistas of stupendous trunks, fading away into the darkness which held us in.
The wind rose as the earth darkened, so that fading chatters of woodland animals were countered by the strengthening sounds of waving trees […]
gloss: An intermittent noise, as from vibration.
pos: noun
tags: uncountable
usually
examples: Proper brake adjustment will help to reduce the chatter.
gloss: In national security, the degree of communication between suspect groups and individuals, used to gauge the degree of expected terrorist activity.
pos: noun
tags: uncountable
usually
examples: The NSA is concerned about increased chatter between known terror groups.
gloss: The situation where a drill or similar tool vibrates and tears the material rather than cutting it cleanly.
pos: noun
tags: uncountable
usually
gloss: To talk idly.
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
examples: They knitted and chattered the whole time.
That teacheth trickes eleuen and twentie long, / To tame a ſhrew, and charme her chattering tongue.
gloss: To make a noise by rapid collisions.
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
usually
examples: He was so cold that his teeth were chattering.
The software in modern machine tools can often predict and prevent movements that would cause the cutting tool to chatter.
gloss: To utter sounds which somewhat resemble language, but are inarticulate and indistinct.
pos: verb
examples: The jay makes answer, as the magpie chatters with delight.
Is your cat intently staring out the window at a bird on a branch and “chattering” in a kind of shaky, high-pitched, breathy way? If so, she is expressing excitement at what she's observing (or maybe the desire to attack what she sees as prey).
Synonyms: babble
bavardage
bibble-babble
blab
blabber
blabbing
blather
blathering
chatter
chinwag
chit-chat
claver
clepe
gabble
hot air
mardle
natter
palaver
prate
prattle
scuttlebutt
small talk
tattle
twaddle
waffle
yackety-yak
yap
yatter
Related words: chatterbox
talkative
nonsense
Derived words: antichatter
chatterati
chatteration
chatterbag
chatter-basket
chatterbot
chatterbox
chatterish
chatter ring
chattersome
chitter-chatter
cyberchatter
roof-brain chatter
achatter
chatterer
chatter mark
chattery
outchatter
Translations: