Chatter \Chat"ter\, n. 1. Sounds like those of a magpie or monkey; idle talk; rapid, thoughtless talk; jabber; prattle.
Your words are but idle and empty chatter. --Longfellow.
2. Noise made by collision of the teeth, as in shivering.
Chatter \Chat"ter\, v. i. [imp. & p. p. {Chattered}; p. pr. & vb. n. {Chattering}.] [Of imitative origin. Cf. {Chat}, v. i. {Chitter}.] 1. To utter sounds which somewhat resemble language, but are inarticulate and indistinct.
The jaw makes answer, as the magpie chatters. --Wordsworth.
2. To talk idly, carelessly, or with undue rapidity; to jabber; to prate.
To tame a shrew, and charm her chattering tongue. --Shak.
3. To make a noise by rapid collisions.
With chattering teeth, and bristling hair upright. --Dryden.
Chatter \Chat"ter\, v. t. To utter rapidly, idly, or indistinctly.
Begin his witless note apace to chatter. --Spenser.
But party line chatter, with two or three parties talking and several more secretly listening, was a popular rural recreation, long before electricity, television and even radio.
Brokerage houses may chatter about the advantages of long-term investing in the stock market, but the truth is that the more long-term investors a brokerage house has on its books, the less money it (and the broker) makes.
Hence the anxious chatter, promoted by the right and echoed by self-flagellating liberals that the process of judicial selection is being "politicized."
It's such idle chatter that sometimes yields valuable tips and contacts in Washington's network of influence salesmen.
The Journal ran a correction on the error, but of course it isn't mentioned in the sales chatter.
Like children they come forward, touch and stare, chatter and giggle to themselves.
After a while all the peppy chatter and bizarre behavior become tiresome because it's hard to remember who anyone is.
The somnolent day is interrupted only by the shrieks of parrots, unidentifiable whoops and calls from the bushes, and the chatter of monkeys in the trees. Until 1987, the Yanomamis' only contact with whites was the occasional missionary.
The claim was immediately dismissed by the prime minister and the president. 'I won't waste time denying nonsense,' Mr Berlusconi was reported as saying. 'I'll have to propose a tax on chatter.'
Coming from the man who already had achieved something similar at his much-discussed stagings of Mozart's three Da Ponte operas for the PepsiCo Summerfare festival in New York, this was not just program chatter.
"We've still got an awful long way to go before we get the stock market back to being the subject of cocktail chatter." In major market action: Stock prices fell in heavy trading.
Nevertheless, Mr. Dunne writes with the authority of someone who seems to have heard all the high-society chatter first-hand.
The bar opens and the tinkle of ice in thin glasses mingles with the chatter of expectant guests.
Visconti describes the beta state as "chatter, chatter, chatter because of outside stimulation."
Visconti describes the beta state as "chatter, chatter, chatter because of outside stimulation."
Visconti describes the beta state as "chatter, chatter, chatter because of outside stimulation."
Here was the turmoil of Paris next to the solace of Compiegne, revolutionary hysteria face-to-face with religious order, mundane chatter amid a world of prayer.
One analyst observed that oil currently is a nervous, rumor-driven market, liable to rise and fall on the latest unsubstantiated chatter.
Inside, the crowd chatter grew and tension built in anticipation of candidates' grand entrance.
That wasn't idle chatter.
They also say customers worry that children will tire quickly of the toys' repetitive chatter.