▪ I. † trattle, n.1 Chiefly Sc. Obs.
Also 6 (pl.) tratlis, trattillis, tratilis, trattils, tratelles.
[n. of action from trattle v.: cf. tattle, prattle as ns.]
Idle tales or talk; gossip; chatter.
| 1513 Douglas æneis viii. Prol. 83 Off tratlis and tragedeis the text of all talk is. a 1592 Greene Jas. IV, i. iii, But leave this trattle, and tell me what news. 1597 Jas. I Demonol. ii. iv, Like old womens trattles about the fire. |
▪ II. trattle, trottle, n.2 local.
(ˈtræt(ə)l), (ˈtrɒt(ə)l)
Also 6–7 tret(t)le, 6, 9 truttle.
[Origin obscure: usually held to be related to treddle.]
pl. The rounded droppings of sheep, hares, rabbits, etc.
| 1547 Boorde Brev. Health cxii. 42 b, If the egestion..doth loke like shepes tretles, there is abundance of coler adusted. 1598 Florio, Tronzoli, the dung or truttles of any cattle, as of sheepe. 1600 Surflet Countrie Farme ii. xii. 217 Break three or fower trottles of a goate or sheepe. 1639 T. de la Grey Compl. Horsem. 62 His doung..hee putteth forth with round and hard trattles. a 1825 Forby Voc. E. Anglia, Trattles,..the small pellets of the dung of sheep, hares, rabbits, &c. 1865 Cockayne in Sax. Leechd. II. Gloss. s.v. Tyrdelu, Called sheeps tredles in Somerset, trattles in Suffolk. 1877 N.W. Linc. Gloss., Trottles, the dung of sheep, lambs, or rabbits. 1886 S.W. Linc. Gloss., Treddles, Truddles, Truttles. |
▪ III. † ˈtrattle, v. Chiefly Sc. Obs.
Forms: 5 tratyll, -el, -ill, tratle, 6 trattil, -ill, -yll, 6, 8 trattle; also pres. pple. 5 tratlyng, 5–6 Sc. tratland, pres. pple. and gerund 6–7 tratling; pa. tense 6 Sc. tratlit.
[app. related in some way to tattle, but actually found earlier, and not in the sense ‘stammer’, in which tattle was first used. Probably echoic.]
intr. and trans. To talk idly; to chatter, gossip.
| a 1400 [see trattling vbl. n.]. c 1425 Wyntoun Cron. vii. x. 3454 Ye rawe [= rave], & tratelys [v.r. tratlys] all foly. 1508 Kennedie Flyting w. Dunbar 313 Sen thow on me thus, lymmer, leis and trattillis. a 1555 Bp. Gardiner in Foxe A. & M. (1563) 751 Ouer grosse opinions, to enter into your learned head, whatsoeuer the vnlearned woulde trattle. 1568 Grafton Chron. II. 107 He..vsed to trattle and talke more than ynough. a 1592 Greene Jas. IV Induct., Many circumstances too long to trattle on now. a 1800 Earl Richard v. in Child Ballads (1885) iii. 152/1 Better..Than thou canst keep thy clattering toung, That trattles in thy head. |