▪ I. blether, blather, v. Sc. and north. dial.
(ˈblɛðə(r), ˈblæðə(r))
Also (?) 6 blother.
[ME. blather, a. ON. blaðra to talk stupidly, f. blaðr nonsense. Blather is the etymological form, blether being Sc. and north. Eng. (like gether = gather etc.). But in mod.Eng., the word is generally accepted as Scotch (from Burns, Scott, Carlyle, etc.) and in the Scotch form. In U.S. blather appears to be more frequent.]
1. intr. To talk nonsense loquaciously.
| 1524 A. Scott Vision xix, And limpand Vulcan blethers. [1526 Skelton Magnyf. 1049, I blunder, I bluster, I blowe and I blother.] 1787 Burns Holy Fair viii, Some are busy blethrin Right loud that day. 1867 E. Waugh Owd Bl. iv. 89 in Lanc. Gloss., He blether't abeawt religion. 1884 Punch 1 Mar. 102 Fluent folly may maunder and blether. |
b. trans. To babble.
| 1810 Tannahill Poems (1846) 145 She blethered it round. |
2. intr. To cry loudly, to blubber. dial.
| 1863 Mrs. Toogood Yorksh. Dial. s.v., What's thou blethering at? child. 1855 Whitby Gloss., Blether, to blubber, to weep aloud. |
▪ II. blether, blather, n.
(ˈblɛðə(r), ˈblæðə(r))
[f. prec., or a. ON. blaðr nonsense.]
Voluble talk void of sense.
| 1787 Burns Vision iv, Stringin blethers up in rhyme, For fools to sing. 1843 Mrs. Carlyle in Lett. I. 257 Untormented by his blether. 1863 Tyneside Songs 36 'Mang the noise and the blether. 1865 Richmond (U.S.) Exam. in Morn. Star 3 Feb., All the eloquence and all the blather in the world will not alter the facts. |