Meanings
present singular third person prates · participle present prating · participle past prated · past prated
- ambitransitiveTo talk much and to little purpose; to be loquacious; to speak foolishly.
What nonsense would the fool, thy master, prate, / When thou, his knave, canst talk at such a rate!
1697, Virgil, “Pastorl 3”, in John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC4 more examples
Thou ſowre and firme-ſet Earth / Heare not my ſteps, which they may walke, for feare / Thy very ſtones prate of my where-about, / And take the preſent horror from the time, / Which now ſutes with it.
c. 1606 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Macbeth”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene i], page 136, column 1Urania speaks with darken’d brow: ‘Thou pratest here where thou art least; This faith has many a purer priest, And many an abler voice than thou: […]’
1850, [Alfred, Lord Tennyson], “Canto XXXVII”, in In Memoriam, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, page 57They are not so chic, these kids. They don’t haunt press receptions or opening nights; they don’t pose as street punks in the style of Bruce Springsteen, or prate of rock & Rimbaud.
1976 June 7, Nik Cohn, “Inside the Tribal Rites of the New Saturday Night”, in New York MagazinePuffed up with fake jocularity, Bill epitomizes the smiley, buck-passing, back-stabbing, passive-aggressive office dictator who fears and despises his underlings while prating nauseatingly about everybody being one big happy family.
1999 February 19, Stephen Holden, “'Office Space': One Big Happy Family? No, Not at This Company”, in New York TimesSynonyms: blabber, babble, bat the breeze, blab, blabber, blather, carp, chat
Synonyms & antonyms
verbTo talk much and to little purpose; to be loquacious; to speak foolishly.
More synonyms by meaning
nounidle or foolish and irrelevant talk
verbspeak (about unimportant matters) rapidly and incessantly
Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.
Origin
- Proto-Indo-European*bred-“to wander, rove”
- Proto-Germanic*prattuz“idle or boastful talk, deceit”
- Proto-West Germanic*prattu
- Old Saxon*pratt
- Middle Low Germanpraten
- Old Englishprætt
- Middle Englishpraten
- Englishprate
From Middle English praten; either inherited from Old English prætt or borrowed via Middle Dutch or Middle Low German praten (from Old Saxon *pratt), all from Proto-West Germanic *prattu, ultimately from Proto-Germanic *prattuz (“idle or boastful talk, deceit”), from Proto-Indo-European *bred- (“to wander, rove”). Related to Dutch praten (“to talk, chat”), Low German praten, dated German pfrassen, Danish prate, Swedish prata (“to talk, prate”), Faroese práta (“to talk, gossip”), Icelandic prata;; also cognate with Polish bredzić (“to rave, jabber”), Latvian bradāt (“to talk nonsense”).
More words from Middle English, Old English, Middle Low German
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Bulgarian бърборене, брътвеж
- бърборене (bărborene)talk to little purpose
- брътвеж (brătvež)talk to little purpose
- бърборя (bărborja)to talk much, to chatter
Czech tlachat
- tlachattalk to little purpose
Dutch gezwets, babbelen
- gezwetstalk to little purpose
- babbelento talk much, to chatter
Finnish pälättää, hölpöttää
- pälättäätalk to little purpose
- hölpöttäätalk to little purpose
French bavarder
- bavarderto talk much, to chatter
German Geschwätz, plaudern
- Geschwätztalk to little purpose
- plaudernto talk much, to chatter
- schwatzento talk much, to chatter
- schwätzento talk much, to chatter
- faselnto talk much, to chatter
- schwafelnto talk much, to chatter
- labernto talk much, to chatter
Māori kotete, kotete
- kotetetalk to little purpose
- koteteto talk much, to chatter
Polish bajdurzyć
- bajdurzyćtalk to little purpose
Russian болтовня́, пустосло́вие
- болтовня́ (boltovnjá)talk to little purpose
- пустосло́вие (pustoslóvije)talk to little purpose
- трёп (trjop)talk to little purpose
- болта́ть (boltátʹ)to talk much, to chatter
Turkish gevezelik, boş konuşmak
- gevezeliktalk to little purpose
- boş konuşmakto talk much, to chatter
- gevezelik etmekto talk much, to chatter
Rhymes & wordplay
Rhymes with prate
Anagrams
Cite this entry
prate. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/prate
“prate.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/prate. Accessed November 2, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “prate,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/prate.
Source: prate on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.