chatter

plural chatters

1. uncountableusuallyTalk, especially meaningless or unimportant talk.

   Although hardly coming under my theme, I cannot omit this: "Against a woman's chatter: Taste at night fasting a root of radish, that day the chatter cannot harm thee."

   1940, Rosetta E. Clarkson, Green Enchantments: The Magic Spell of Gardens, The Macmillan Company, page 257

   Synonyms: chattering, chatting, nattering

2. uncountableusuallyThe sound of talking.
3. uncountableusuallyThe vocalisations of a Eurasian magpie, Pica pica.
4. uncountableusuallyThe vocalisations of various birds or other animals.

   The hare cried and complained of the terrible February cold and the disgusting chatter of the owls[.]

   1886, Peter Christen Asbjø￵rnsen, translated by H.L. Brækstad, Folk and Fairy Tales, page 117

   2 more examples

   At dawn and at sunset the howler monkeys screamed together and the parakeets broke into shrill chatter, but during the hot hours of the day only the full drone of insects, like the beat of a distant surf, filled the ear, while nothing moved amid the solemn vistas of stupendous trunks, fading away into the darkness which held us in.

   1912, Arthur Conan Doyle, “‘The Outlying Pickets of the New World’”, in The Lost World […], London; New York, N.Y.: Hodder and Stoughton, →OCLC, page 114

   The wind rose as the earth darkened, so that fading chatters of woodland animals were countered by the strengthening sounds of waving trees […]

   2016, Cornelia F. Mutel, A Sugar Creek Chronicle, page 41

5. uncountableusuallyAn intermittent noise, as from vibration.

   Proper brake adjustment will help to reduce the chatter.

6. uncountableusuallyIn national security, the degree of communication between suspect groups and individuals, used to gauge the degree of expected terrorist activity.

   The NSA is concerned about increased chatter between known terror groups.

7. uncountableusuallyThe situation where a drill or similar tool vibrates and tears the material rather than cutting it cleanly.
8. collectivecountableusuallyA group of songbirds.

   Some golden fruit still hung from a crab apple and drew a chatter of birds.

   2015, Julia Rochester, The House at the Edge of the World, Penguin Books Limited

   2 more examples

   There was a lark in the sky, a chatter of rooks, and the swoop of swallows arrived to-day.

   1903, William Babington Maxwell, Fabulous Fancies, G. Richards, page 161

   There was a chatter of birds in the tree tops just above his head which broke his train of thought and brought him back to reality.

   1961, Louis Raphael Nardini, No Man's Land: A History of El Camino Real, Pelican, page 66

present singular third person chatters · participle present chattering · participle past chattered · past chattered

1. intransitiveTo talk idly.

   They knitted and chattered the whole time.

   1 more example

   That teacheth trickes eleuen and twentie long, / To tame a ſhrew, and charme her chattering tongue.

   c. 1590–1592 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Taming of the Shrew”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene ii], page 222

   Synonyms: chat, natter

2. intransitiveusuallymachineryTo make a noise by rapid collisions.

   He was so cold that his teeth were chattering.

   1 more example

   The software in modern machine tools can often predict and prevent movements that would cause the cutting tool to chatter.

   Synonyms: clatter, gnash, grind, pink

3. To utter sounds which somewhat resemble language, but are inarticulate and indistinct.

   The jay makes answer, as the magpie chatters with delight.

   1815 [1802], William Wordsworth, Resolution and Independence

   1 more example

   Is your cat intently staring out the window at a bird on a branch and “chattering” in a kind of shaky, high-pitched, breathy way? If so, she is expressing excitement at what she's observing (or maybe the desire to attack what she sees as prey).

   2016, David Meyer, Abbie Moore, Pia Salk, The Total Cat Manual, Weldon Owen International, →ISBN

plural chatters

1. One who chats.
2. InternetA user of livestream chat.
3. InternetA user of chat rooms.

   During the chat sessions, two outreach team members would engage in a conversation about the topic chosen for that event in the main chat room and entice other chatters to join in.

   2013, Michael K. Sullivan, Sexual Minorities, page 148