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tattle

verb
/ˈtæt(ə)l/UK/ˈtætl̩/US

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.

  1. derived from tatelen

Definitions

  1. To chatter

    To chatter; to gossip.

    • 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.
    • 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.

  2. Often said of children

    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.

    • 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.

  3. To speak like a baby or young child

    To speak like a baby or young child; to babble, to prattle; to speak haltingly; to stutter.

    • 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.
  4. ›+ 2 more definitions

    1. A tattletale.

      • We agree on almost nothing, everything is a battle / Every secret from him is kept, his rep is being a tattle

    2. Idle talk

      Idle talk; gossip; (countable) an instance of such talk or gossip.

      • 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.

The neighborhood

Vish — recursive loop

No curated loop yet for tattle. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA