Library / English Dictionary

CHATTER

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Noisy talk

Synonyms:

cackle; chatter; yack; yak; yakety-yak

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Hypernyms ("chatter" is a kind of...):

talk; talking (an exchange of ideas via conversation)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "chatter"):

blether; chin music; idle talk; prate; prattle (idle or foolish and irrelevant talk)

Derivation:

chatter (speak (about unimportant matters) rapidly and incessantly)

chatter (talk socially without exchanging too much information)

Sense 2

Meaning:

The high-pitched continuing noise made by animals (birds or monkeys)

Synonyms:

chatter; chattering

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural events

Hypernyms ("chatter" is a kind of...):

noise (sound of any kind (especially unintelligible or dissonant sound))

Derivation:

chatter (make noise as if chattering away)

Sense 3

Meaning:

The rapid series of noises made by the parts of a machine

Synonyms:

chatter; chattering

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural events

Hypernyms ("chatter" is a kind of...):

noise (sound of any kind (especially unintelligible or dissonant sound))

 II. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Speak (about unimportant matters) rapidly and incessantly

Synonyms:

blab; blabber; chatter; clack; gabble; gibber; maunder; palaver; piffle; prate; prattle; tattle; tittle-tattle; twaddle

Classified under:

Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing

Hypernyms (to "chatter" is one way to...):

mouth; speak; talk; utter; verbalise; verbalize (express in speech)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "chatter"):

babble; blather; blether; blither; smatter (to talk foolishly)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s

Sentence example:

Sam and Sue chatter

Derivation:

chatter (noisy talk)

chatterer (an obnoxious and foolish and loquacious talker)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Make noise as if chattering away

Example:

The magpies were chattering in the trees

Classified under:

Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing

Hypernyms (to "chatter" is one way to...):

mouth; speak; talk; utter; verbalise; verbalize (express in speech)

Sentence frame:

Something ----s

Sentence examples:

The birds chatter in the woods

The woods chatter with many kinds of birds

Derivation:

chatter (the high-pitched continuing noise made by animals (birds or monkeys))

chatterer (an obnoxious and foolish and loquacious talker)

chattering (the high-pitched continuing noise made by animals (birds or monkeys))

Sense 3

Meaning:

Talk socially without exchanging too much information

Example:

the men were sitting in the cafe and shooting the breeze

Synonyms:

chaffer; chat; chatter; chew the fat; chit-chat; chitchat; claver; confab; confabulate; gossip; jaw; natter; shoot the breeze; visit

Classified under:

Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing

Hypernyms (to "chatter" is one way to...):

converse; discourse (carry on a conversation)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "chatter"):

jawbone; schmoose; schmooze; shmoose; shmooze (talk idly or casually and in a friendly way)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s

Sentence examples:

Sam and Sue chatter

Sam wants to chatter with Sue

Derivation:

chatter (noisy talk)

chatterer (an obnoxious and foolish and loquacious talker)

Sense 4

Meaning:

Cut unevenly with a chattering tool

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Hypernyms (to "chatter" is one way to...):

cut (separate with or as if with an instrument)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Derivation:

chattering (the rapid series of noises made by the parts of a machine)

Sense 5

Meaning:

Click repeatedly or uncontrollably

Example:

Chattering teeth

Synonyms:

chatter; click

Classified under:

Verbs of seeing, hearing, feeling

Hypernyms (to "chatter" is one way to...):

go; sound (make a certain noise or sound)

Sentence frame:

Something ----s

Credits

 Context examples: 

“Don’t you think we’ve gone far enough, Jim?” said I, with my teeth chattering.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

All round the hull, in the blackness, the rippling current bubbled and chattered like a little mountain stream.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

No sooner did that idea cross my imagination, than I became convinced of its truth; my teeth chattered, and I was forced to lean against a tree for support.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

Off went the flock chattering away; but one fell down dead, and the cloak with it.

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)

Never did he fail to respond savagely to the chatter of the squirrel he had first met on the blasted pine.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

Fuzzy little black-velvet monkeys, with snow-white teeth and gleaming, mocking eyes, chattered at us as we passed.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Her friends repeated the pleasing phrase enthusiastically, and for several minutes she stood, like a jackdaw in the fable, enjoying her borrowed plumes, while the rest chattered like a party of magpies.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

Raw and chill was the winter morning: my teeth chattered as I hastened down the drive.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

In this commonplace chatter, which lasted some time, the original subject seemed entirely forgotten; and though Catherine was very well pleased to have it dropped for a while, she could not avoid a little suspicion at the total suspension of all Isabella's impatient desire to see Mr. Tilney.

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)

We may be trusted, I think, in chusing some play most perfectly unexceptionable; and I can conceive no greater harm or danger to any of us in conversing in the elegant written language of some respectable author than in chattering in words of our own.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)