▪ I. chittering, vbl. n.
(ˈtʃɪtərɪŋ)
Also chithering.
[f. chitter v. + -ing1.]
The action of the vb. chitter: twittering, shivering, chattering.
| c 1374 Chaucer Troylus ii. 19 The swalow Progne..made her chiteryng. 1546 Langley Pol. Verg. De Invent. i. xix. 34 a, Of birdes..Carus fyrste marked the chyttering. 1552 Huloet, Chytteryng, quiueryng or shakyng for cold. 1827 in Hone Every-Day Bk. II. 903 The chithering of grasshoppers. 1870 J. Macgregor Rob Roy on Jordan, It was only the chittering of their bills. Mod. Sc. He could not speak for the chittering of his teeth. |
2. Comb., in chittering-bite, -crust, -piece, (Sc.), a bit of bread, etc., taken to prevent shivering or chattering of the teeth; cf. shivering-bite.
| 1808 Jamieson, Boys..call that bit of bread, which they preserve for eating after bathing, a chittering piece. 1854 Badham Halieut. 529 The Greeks..appear to have begun the day with a sort of ‘chittering crust’ (ἀκράτισµα). |
▪ II. chittering, ppl. a.
(ˈtʃɪtərɪŋ)
[f. as prec. + -ing2.]
That chitters (in all the senses of the vb.).
| 1785 Burns Winter Night iv, Whare wilt thou cow'r thy chittering wing. 1821 Clare Vill. Minstr. II. 176 The chittering cricket. 1887 Stevenson Underwoods ii. ii. 83 Wauken, at cauld-rife sax o'clock My chitterin' frame. |