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CHATTERING
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
The high-pitched continuing noise made by animals (birds or monkeys)
Synonyms:
chatter; chattering
Classified under:
Hypernyms ("chattering" is a kind of...):
noise (sound of any kind (especially unintelligible or dissonant sound))
Derivation:
chatter (make noise as if chattering away)
Sense 2
Meaning:
The rapid series of noises made by the parts of a machine
Synonyms:
chatter; chattering
Classified under:
Nouns denoting natural events
Hypernyms ("chattering" is a kind of...):
noise (sound of any kind (especially unintelligible or dissonant sound))
Derivation:
chatter (cut unevenly with a chattering tool)
II. (verb)
Sense 1
-ing form of the verb chatter
Context examples:
I repair to the enchanted house, where there are lights, chattering, music, flowers, officers (I am sorry to see), and the eldest Miss Larkins, a blaze of beauty.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
I have never seen any human being who appeared to be in such a pitiable fright, for his teeth were visibly chattering, and he was shaking in every limb.
(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
And then they had called her to a sofa, where she now sat, ensconced between them, chattering alternately in French and broken English; absorbing not only the young ladies' attention, but that of Mrs. Eshton and Lady Lynn, and getting spoilt to her heart's content.
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
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)
After some time spent in peeping, grinning, and chattering, he at last espied me; and reaching one of his paws in at the door, as a cat does when she plays with a mouse, although I often shifted place to avoid him, he at length seized the lappet of my coat (which being made of that country silk, was very thick and strong), and dragged me out.
(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)
On one side was a table occupied by some chattering girls, cutting up silk and gold paper; and on the other were tressels and trays, bending under the weight of brawn and cold pies, where riotous boys were holding high revel; the whole completed by a roaring Christmas fire, which seemed determined to be heard, in spite of all the noise of the others.
(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)
So here we are, installed in this beautiful old house, and from both my bedroom and the drawing-room I can see the great elms of the cathedral close, with their great black stems standing out against the old yellow stone of the cathedral and I can hear the rooks overhead cawing and cawing and chattering and gossiping all day, after the manner of rooks—and humans.
(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)
Then all the Winged Monkeys, with much laughing and chattering and noise, flew into the air and were soon out of sight.
(The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, by L. Frank Baum)
Two-score archers stood about the gateway, and beat back from time to time with their bow-staves the inquisitive and chattering crowd who swarmed round the portal.
(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
'The little chattering daws of men,' Richard Realf called them the night he died.
(Martin Eden, by Jack London)
