▪ I. chatter, v.
(ˈtʃætə(r))
Forms: 3 cheater, 3–7 chater(e, 4–6 chatre, 5 chyter, chatir, chatere, shatur, 6 chytter, chattre, 5– chatter.
[An onomatopœic word of frequentative form: cf. Du. koeteren to jabber, kwetteren to chatter, and Eng. twitter, jabber, etc. See also chitter.]
1. Of birds: To utter a rapid succession or series of short vocal sounds; now applied to sounds approaching those of the human voice, e.g. of starlings, magpies, etc., but originally used more widely, so as to include what is now called the ‘twitter’ of sparrows, swallows, etc.
(Human ‘chattering’ was originally transferred from the chattering of birds; but the ‘chattering’ of a magpie, etc., is now commonly taken as a simile from that of a human being.)
| a 1225 Ancr. R. 152 Sparuwe is a cheaterinde brid: cheatereð euer ant chirmeð..so ouh ancre..chirmen & cheateren euer hire bonen. 1398 Trevisa Barth. De P.R. v. xxiii. (1495) 131 Small byrdes crye and chatter more than grete. c 1430 Lydg. Min. Poems (1840) 150 (Mätz) The stare wyl chatre. c 1535 G. Du Wes Introd. Fr. in Palsgr. 917 The byrdes chermes and chattereth. 1607 Topsell Serpents 610 The old ones [swallows] will fly away chattering, and chirping in mournful sort. 1611 Bible Isa. xxxviii. 14 Like a crane or a swallow, so did I chatter; I did mourne as a doue. 1699 W. Dampier Voy. II. ii. ii. 66 Sometimes called Chattering Crows because they chatter like a Magpy. c 1810 Wordsw. Resolution & Ind. 6 The jay makes answer as the magpie chatters. 1859 Jephson Brittany x. 169. |
b. trans.
| c 1400 Test. Love Prol., How should then a French man borne, such termes conne iumpere in his matter, but as the Jay chatereth English. 1616 Surfl. & Markh. Countr. Farm 234 An infinite number of pretie small Birds, which continually..doe chatter and chant their proper and naturall branch-songs. |
2. Of human beings: To talk rapidly, incessantly, and with more sound than sense. Esp. said of children; but often applied vituperatively to speech which one does not like. Also said of apes and other animals whose voice suggests human chattering. a. intr.
| a 1250 Owl & Night 322 Thu chaterest so doth on Irish preost. 1377 Langl. P. Pl. B. xiv. 226 If he chyde or chatre Hym chieueth þe worse. c 1440 Promp. Parv. 70 Chateryn, garrio. c 1440 York Myst. xxvi. 180 Þou chaterist like a churle þat can chyde. c 1450 Why can't be nun 251 in E.E.P. (1862) 144 Whoso chateryt lyke a py..schalle be put owte of company. 1549 Olde Erasm. Par. 1 Tim. v. 13 Shamefully chattring of mariage..of the naughtynes..done in other mens householdes. 1610 Shakes. Temp. ii. ii. 9 Like Apes, that moe and chatter at me, And after bite me. 1853 Kingsley Hypatia ii. 11 The female slaves..worked, and chattered, and quarrelled. 1855 Macaulay Hist. Eng. IV. 174 Chattering about what he had done for the good cause. |
b. trans.
| a 1225 [see 1]. 1847 Disraeli Tancred iii. vi, He looked in at some of his creditors to chatter charming delusions. 1850 Tennyson In Mem. lxix, They chatter'd trifles at the door. 1884 W. C. Smith Kildrostan 70 Even the girls Chatter half-atheism. |
3. Of the teeth: To make a noise by rapidly repeated collision; to shiver, shake. a. intr. (Rarely said of the person.)
| c 1420 Anturs of Arth. xi, The schaft and the shol, shaturt to the shin. c 1450 Henryson Test. Cres., His tethe chattrit and shiveret with the chin. 1537 in W. H. Turner Select Rec. Oxford 142, I stode..in a cold ffrosty mornyng, tyll that my teeth chattred in my heed. 1605 Shakes. Lear iv. vi. 103 When the raine came to wet me, and the winde to make me chatter. 1665–9 Boyle Occas. Refl. ii. ii, My Teeth chatter, and my whole Body does shake strongly enough to make the Bed it self do so. 1798 Southey Eng. Eclog. iv, The evening wind already Makes one's teeth chatter. 1863 Mrs. Oliphant Salem Ch. xvi. 289 Her very teeth chattered with anxiety and cold. |
b. causally. To make (the teeth) chatter.
| 1603 Harsnet Pop. Impost. 119 The poore Devil chattered his teeth so sore. 1866 Sala Barbary vii. 131 Cowering in corners..gibbering and chattering their teeth like disconsolate pagods. |
4. Applied to similar sounds: esp. to clatter, rattle from vibration.
| 1853 Pharmaceut. Jrnl. XIII. 125 It burned with the..flame..of cannel coal, and ‘chattered’ in burning. 1879 Holtzapffel Turning IV. 342 The vibration causes the work and the tool to ‘chatter’ upon each other. 1880 Daily News 30 Apr. 2 [He] first heard one of the bars ‘chatter’ when a train was passing over the bridge. 1884 F. J. Britten Watch & Clockm. 138 If the cutting edge is above the centre of the body pressure..causes it to ‘chatter’. |
▪ II. chatter, n.1
(ˈtʃætə(r))
Forms: 3 chatere, 6– chatter.
[f. prec. vb.]
1. The chattering of certain birds; also of apes, etc.: see the vb.
| a 1250 Owl & Night. 284 Mid chavling and mid chatere. 1784–99 Cowper Pairing-time 15 And with much twitter, and much chatter, Began to agitate the matter. 1797 T. Bewick Brit. Birds (1847) I. 123 Its note of anger is very loud and harsh, between a chatter and shriek. |
2. Incessant talk of a trivial kind; prate, tattle.
| 1851 Longfellow Gold. Leg. vi. Sch. Salerno, Your words are but idle and empty chatter. 1856 Emerson Eng. Traits, Religion Wks. (Bohn) II. 100 The chatter of French politics..had quite put most of the old legends out of mind. |
3. The vibration of a tool (see also quot. 1904). Cf. chatter v. 4.
| 1893 [see chatter-mark, sense 4 below]. 1904 Goodchild & Tweney Technol. & Sci. Dict. 99/2 Chatter, the waviness produced on the surface of work by vibration of the tool, etc. 1964 Times Rev. Industry Apr. 91/1 Machine tool chatter, a vibration which shortens tool life, spoils surface finish and reduces machining accuracy. |
4. Comb., as chatter-house; chatter-bag, -basket, dial. variants of chatterbox, q.v.; † chatter-chitter, small talk, gossip (cf. chitter-chatter); chatter-mark, (a) Geol. a mark made on a surface by a fragment of rock on the under-surface of glacier ice; (b) (see quot. 1893); chatter-pie, familiar name for the Magpie; also fig. = chatterbox; chatter-water (humorous), tea.
| 1888 Elworthy W. Somerset Gloss., *Chatter-bag. |
| 1875 Lanc. Gloss., *Chatter-basket, an incessant talker; gen. applied to a child. |
| 1711 Wentworth Papers 207 You bid me send you all the *Chatter-Chitter I heard. |
| 1611 Speed Hist. Gt. Brit. vi. xxvi. (1632) 120 A *Chatter-house for women to meet and determine of their Attires. |
| 1888 T. C. Chamberlin in U.S. Geol. Survey Ann. Rep. VII. 247 A fragment of rock acting as a gouging tool often produces ‘*chatter marks’, little transverse lines of breakage due to the unsteady action of the tool in gouging the rock. 1893 Funk's Stand. Dict., Chatter-marks, irregular tool-markings caused by vibration due to lack of stiffness in a lathe or similar machine. 1904 Chamberlin & Salisbury Geol. (1905) I. 270 Glacial striæ and bruises. The block to the right shows two sets of striæ: that to the left shows the peculiar curved fractures known as Chatter Marks. 1954 H. Garner Oriental Blue 37 They are roughly finished with radial marks, caused by the slipping of the turning tool and colloqually known as ‘chatter marks’. 1963 D. W. & E. E. Humphries tr. Termier's Erosion & Sedimentation v. 124 (caption) Striation left by the Quaternary Ice Sheet on a Rock in Fakse Quarry (Denmark). Note the lunate ‘chatter marks’; the ice moved from left to right. |
| 1721–1800 Bailey, *Chatter-pie, a kind of bird. 1888 [Common in dial. Glossaries]. |
| 1863 Mrs. Toogood Yorksh. Dial. s.v., What a time you sit over your *chatter-watter. |
▪ III. † chatter, n.2 Obs.
(ˈtʃætə(r))
[f. chat v.1 + -er1.]
One who chats; a gossip.
| 1556 Hoby Courtier (1561) Yy iv, Not to be a babbler, brauler or chatter. a 1603 T. Cartwright Confut. Rhem. N.T. (1618) Pref. 5 He sharply reproueth such..as chatters and vnprofitable. |