Patter \Pat"ter\, v. t. 1. To spatter; to sprinkle. [R.] ``And patter the water about the boat.'' --J. R. Drake.
2. [See {Patter}, v. i., 2.] To mutter; as prayers.
[The hooded clouds] patter their doleful prayers. --Longfellow.
{To patter flash}, to talk in thieves' cant. [Slang]
Patter \Pat"ter\, v. i. [imp. & p. p. {Pattered}; p. pr. & vb. n. {Pattering}.] [Freq. of pat to strike gently.] 1. To strike with a quick succession of slight, sharp sounds; as, pattering rain or hail; pattering feet.
The stealing shower is scarce to patter heard. --Thomson.
2. To mutter; to mumble; as, to patter with the lips. --Tyndale. [In this sense, and in the following, perh. from paternoster.]
3. To talk glibly; to chatter; to harangue. [Colloq.]
I've gone out and pattered to get money. --Mayhew.
Patter \Pat"ter\, n. 1. A quick succession of slight sounds; as, the patter of rain; the patter of little feet.
2. Glib and rapid speech; a voluble harangue.
3. The cant of a class; patois; as, thieves's patter; gypsies' patter.
4. The language or oratory of a street peddler, conjurer, or the like, hence, glib talk; a voluble harangue; mere talk; chatter; also, specif., rapid speech, esp. as sometimes introduced in songs. [Cant or Colloq.] [Webster 1913 Suppl.]
"I started singing funny little songs, patter songs," he says. "So I started taking lessons and still do, to keep me on the straight and narrow." Even then, he was carefully cultivating his image as urban sophisticate.
The television set babbled as we surveyed the bay, listening to the patter of rain against the water.
Their cynical patter is matched by their psychotic violence.
Just when one was getting impatient with the show biz patter, Bailey said, "Oh, Pearl, you are forever young."
Among the young folk at MTV, these expressions fly faster than video clips, snazzy graphics or video-jockey (V.J.) patter.
But if you have been favoured you will know how prudent, how reasonable, is the consumerist sales patter of these representatives of producer interests.
About 500 family, friends and related hangers-on settled into the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion to hear the patter.
In typical trade-show fashion, the official patter will be upbeat.