chat

present singular third person chats · participle present chatting · participle past chatted · past chatted

1. To be engaged in informal conversation.

   She chatted with her friend in the cafe.

   1 more example

   I like to chat over a coffee with a friend.

   Synonyms: confab, discourse, parley, common, confab, confabulate, conversate, converse

2. To talk a while in a friendly manner.

   I met my old friend in the street, so we chatted for a while.

3. transitiveTo talk of; to discuss.

   They chatted politics for a while.

   1 more example

   We would get totally stoned and usually drunk too and chat a load of nonsense into the small hours.

   2014, Lenny Smith, Choices, page 43

   Synonyms: bespeak, moot, talk about, bechat, confer, bespeak, betalk, discuss

4. informaloftenslangTo chat shit (to speak nonsense, to lie).

   Don't listen to me, I'm chatting.

5. To exchange text or voice messages in real time through a computer network such as a social media chat room or messaging application (as if having a face-to-face conversation instead of SMS or writing emails or letters).

   Do you want to chat online later?

plural chats

1. countableuncountableInformal conversation.

   It'd be cool to meet up again soon and have a quick chat.

   1 more example

   Reg liked a chat about old times and we used to go and have a chinwag in the pub.

   1963, Margery Allingham, “Foreword”, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC

2. countableuncountableAn exchange of text or voice messages in real time through a computer network, resembling a face-to-face conversation.

   Internet Relay Chat

3. InternetuncountableA chat room, especially (in later use) one accompanying a videoconference or live stream.

   "Type yes in (the) chat if you can hear me."

   1 more example

   While there are chats for various interest groups (games, Internet, sports), you can also […]

   1997, Meg Booker, The Insider's Guide to America Online, page 256

   1. InternetcountablemetonymicallyuncountableThe entirety of users, viewed collectively, in a chat room, especially the chat room accompanying a live stream.

      The chat just made a joke about my poor skillz.

      2 more examples

      "Chat, should I pick up this sword before heading out?"

      Chat, is this prime minister serious?

      2024 September 11, Fatima Payman, 00:48 from the start, in Skibidi Senator Payman + 100,000 aura (video), archived from the original on 12 Sep 2024

   2. InternetbroadlycountablehumorousnonstandarduncountableFamiliar term of address for users on social media other than a chat room, as in "guys."
4. uncountableAnother term for ChatGPT

   "Hey Chat, generate this"

   2026 July 1, wishart_media, 00:00 from the start, in Hey Chat, generate this (video)

   1 more example

   "In the demonstration I saw, the OpenAI employee called it “Chat”, so he said 'Hey Chat', just like you would say "Hey Siri". In practice that seems to work quite well."

   2026 July 8, Graham Barlow, ChatGPT's 'smartest voice model ever' is rolling out to everyone today — and GPT-Live-1 gives you more natural conversations without interruptions

5. countableAny of various small Old World passerine birds in the muscicapid tribe Saxicolini or subfamily Saxicolinae that feed on insects.
6. countableAny of several small Australian honeyeaters in the genus Epthianura.

1. humorousinformalUsed to introduce a question, to address all the other people present.

   Chat, is this real?

   Synonyms: I don't suppose

plural chats

1. A small potato, such as is given to swine.

   Wheat and potatoes were traditionally cash crops, though they also provided tail corn for the poultry and chats for the pigs

   1978, Joan Thirsk, Edith Holt Whetham, H. P. R. Finberg, The Agrarian History of England and Wales: Volume 8, 1914-1939, Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page 5

plural chats

1. regionalbusinessMining waste from lead and zinc mines.

   Frank had been looking at calcite crystals for a while now [...] among the chats or zinc tailings of the Lake County mines, down here in the silver lodes of the Vita Madre and so forth.

   2006, Thomas Pynchon, Against the Day, Vintage, published 2007, page 441

plural chats · alternative chatt

1. AustraliaNew ZealandUKWorld War IslanggovernmentA louse (small, parasitic insect).

   May a thousand chats from Belgium crawl under their fingers as they write.

   2007, How Can I Sleep when the Seagull Calls?, →ISBN, page 18

   2 more examples

   'Do officers have chats, then, the same as us?' 'Not the same, no. The chats they got is bigger and better, with pips on their shoulders and Sam Browne belts.'

   1977, Mary Emily Pearce, Apple Tree Lean Down, page 520

   Trench foot was a nasty and potentially fatal foot disease commonly caused by these conditions, in which chats or body lice were the bane of all.

   2013, Graham Seal, The Soldiers' Press: Trench Journals in the First World War, →ISBN, page 149

plural chats

1. alternativeAlternative form of chaat.

1. slangChatGPT.

   i be using chat to make study plans for me 😭

   2024 September 13, @cjoffiah, Twitter, archived from the original on 27 Sep 2024

   5 more examples

   Its redundancy of creative work and in terms of chat how people can use it as a cheat basically, you don't have to do essays for school when you can ask chat to do it for you, which forces teachers to have to take this tool into account, and a kid here has said his honest essay has been flagged as "AI made" by his teacher, it's really tricky

   2023 August 9, u/MiguelIstNeugierig, “Give me your best yo mama jokes and chatgpt will rate them out of 10 with a review”, in Reddit, r/teenagers, archived from the original on 27 Sep 2024

   I asked chat to pick a draft to post and it said they all suck

   2024 March 21, @Nexuist, Twitter, archived from the original on 27 Sep 2024

   My relative works for the Canadian government, and half her office uses chat to create all sorts of internal comms. I'm just waiting for the leak lmao

   2024 March 21, u/lolar44, “When you delete a conversation, ChatGPT actually hides it instead of deleting it.”, in Reddit, r/ChatGPT, archived from the original on 27 Sep 2024

   I asked Chat to write a paragraph about graphene oxide in LNPs. This is the response.

   2024 July 28, @GMOScience, Twitter, archived from the original on 27 Sep 2024

   TiL the kids are calling Chat-GPT just "chat". Usage from my 20yo, "I bet he used Chat to write that apology"

   2024 September 14, @matthew_mullins_, Threads, archived from the original on 27 Sep 2024

   Synonyms: Chatty G

1. abbreviationacronymuncountableAcronym of cultural-historical activity theory.