Definify.com

Webster 1913 Edition


Tattle

Tat′tle

,
Verb.
I.
[
imp. & p. p.
Tattled
;
p. pr. & vb. n.
Tattling
.]
[Akin to OE.
tateren
, LG.
tateln
, D.
tateren
to stammer, and perhaps to E.
titter
.]
1.
To prate; to talk idly; to use many words with little meaning; to chat.
The
tattling
quality of age, which is always narrative.
Dryden.
2.
To tell tales; to communicate secrets; to be a talebearer;
as, a
tattling
girl
.

Tat′tle

,
Noun.
Idle talk or chat; trifling talk; prate.
[They] told the
tattle
of the day.
Swift.

Webster 1828 Edition


Tattle

TAT'TLE

, v.i.
1.
To prate; to talk idly; to use many words with little meaning.
Excuse it by the tattling quality of age, which is always narrative.
2.
To tell tales; to communicate secrets; as a tattling girl.

TAT'TLE

,
Noun.
Prate, idle talk or chat; trifling talk.
They told the tattle of the day.

Definition 2024


tattle

tattle

English

Verb

tattle (third-person singular simple present tattles, present participle tattling, simple past and past participle tattled)

  1. (intransitive, pejorative) To report others' wrongdoings or violations; to tell on somebody; to gossip or to disclose incriminating information.
  2. (intransitive) To chatter.
    • 1599, William Shakespeare, Much Ado About Nothing, Act 2 Scene 1
      BEATRICE. He were an excellent man that were made just in the mid-way between him and Benedick: the one is too like an image, and says nothing; and the other too like my lady's eldest son, evermore tattling.
    • Dryden
      the tattling quality of age, which is always narrative

Synonyms

Translations

Noun

tattle (uncountable)

  1. A tattletale.
  2. Gossip; idle talk.

Related terms

Translations