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Definition of Tittle-tattle
1. Verb. Speak (about unimportant matters) rapidly and incessantly. "Sam and Sue tittle-tattle"
Generic synonyms: Mouth, Speak, Talk, Utter, Verbalise, Verbalize
Specialized synonyms: Babble, Blather, Blether, Blither, Smatter
Derivative terms: Blabber, Chatter, Chatterer, Gabble, Palaver, Piffle, Prate, Prater, Prattle, Prattler, Twaddle, Twaddler
2. Noun. Light informal conversation for social occasions.
Generic synonyms: Chat, Confab, Confabulation, Schmoose, Schmooze
Derivative terms: Chitchat, Chitchat, Chitchat, Gabby, Gossip, Gossipy
Definition of Tittle-tattle
1. Noun. petty, idle gossip ¹
2. Verb. to engage in such gossip ¹
3. Verb. to spread gossip ¹
¹ Source: wiktionary.com
Medical Definition of Tittle-tattle
1. 1. Idle, trifling talk; empty prattle. 2. An idle, trifling talker; a gossip. Origin: A reduplication of tattle. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998)
Lexicographical Neighbors of Tittle-tattle
Literary usage of Tittle-tattle
Below you will find example usage of this term as found in modern and/or classical literature:
1. Dictionary of Phrase and Fable: Giving the Derivation, Source, Or Origin of by Ebenezer Cobham Brewer (1898)
"... is a variant of tidy/ and "vate" is an affix, from the Latin r ado (to go),
meaning " to go and do something. Tittle Tattle. ..."
2. The Lives of the Right Hon. Francis North, Baron Guilford, Lord Keeper of by Roger North (1826)
"... plied with gossips; but her penetration was not so shallow as their tittle-tattle.
She lodged in the house of an understanding merchant, one Mr. George ..."
3. Extracts of the Journals and Correspondence of Miss Berry: From the Year by Mary Berry (1865)
"You will wonder perhaps that I have tumbled to tittle-tattle, and not dropped a
syllable on Lord Moira and Toulon : in fact I know nothing positive about ..."
4. Poems by Edward Robert Bulwer Lytton Lytton (1866)
"... It shook a leaflet from the tree, and laid it on her breast. Her sweet eyes
ope'd, and looked on me. How can I tell the rest ? m. tittle-tattle. ..."
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