twattle

present singular third person twattles · participle present twattling · participle past twattled · past twattled

1. ambitransitivearchaicTo talk in a digressive or long-winded way.

   Tis very well, Mistress, says he, and are you not a fine Gossiping Lady, do you think, to twattle your Husband thus out of his Life and Fortune?

   1692, Roger L’Estrange, “ (please specify the fable number.) (please specify the name of the fable.)”, in Fables, of Æsop and Other Eminent Mythologists: […], London: […] R[ichard] Sare, […], →OCLC

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   After all, she objected, Do not Men run visiting from House to House, for no other purpose but to twattle, spending their time in idle and fruitless discourse?

   1671, Margaret Cavendish Duchess of Newcastle, Natures Pictures drawn by Fancies Pencil to the Life, page 181

   He now and then twattles a little , as an old gentleman may when lamenting the degeneracy of the evil times on which his gray hairs have fallen; but his Introductions and Notes are always gravely entertaining, and generally learnedly instructive.

   1858 January, “Dr. Wordsworth's Greek Testament”, in Bibliotheca sacra: a theological quarterly, volume 15, number 5, page 248

   He has no story to tell, it is true, but is eminently readable, for he writes most forcible, idiomatic English, is never dull in his didactics, never twattles, is learned without pedantry, and although the topics treated are so diverse, yet there is a natural consecutiveness from first to last, and no abrupt transition.

   1860 May, “Literary Notices: Doctor Oldham at Greystones, and His Talk There”, in The Knickerbocker, volume 55, number 5, page 528

plural twattles

1. archaiccountableuncountableChatter; twaddle.

   The lies, twattles, and contrivances about this affair, are innumerable.

   1970, Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, James Archibald Stuart-Wortley-Mackenzie Wharncliffe (1st Baron), William Moy Thomas, The Letters and Works of Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, page 500

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   Continue, if you choose, your twattle against Homœopathy; distort it, misinterpret it, calumniate and deride its author; the unprejudiced legions will soon be able to decide on which side is the truth.

   1850 May, “Unjust Personalities”, in The American Journal of Homœopathy, volume 5, number 1, page 11

   It concedes too much to you Northern fellows; and all the old man said about magnanimity was mere twattle.

   1860, Hezekiah Lord Hosmer, Adela, the Octoroon, page 91

   The penetrating power of that saying might atone for pages of twattle, and Carlyle has flashes of such tremendous insight as is only given to masters in literature.

   1876 January, Francis Gerry Fairfield, “An Unconventional View of Herbert Spencer”, in Phrenological Journal, volume 65, number 1

present singular third person twattles · participle present twattling · participle past twattled · past twattled

1. archaictransitiveTo cosset; to pet or coddle.

   Thoo twattles on wi ' ť pup ez if ' t wur a bairn.

   1911, Richard Blakeborough, Wit, Character, Folklore & Customs of the North Riding of Yorkshire, page 484

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   Never fear her, I warrant you, she that will ask for a weapon is not desperate; get you gone in to her, and twattle her out of the sullens if you can; if not, I'le not long be absent.

   1675, John Dryden, The Mistaken Husband

   For se waik an' se silly, an' helpless was I, I was always a tumbling down then, While me mother would twattle me gently, and cry Honey Jenny: tak' care o' thysen.

   1884 October 15, “Song”, in The Hull Quarterly and East Riding Portfolio, volume 1, number 4, page 155

plural twattles

1. archaicA dwarf.

   She had telt him, indignant, 'I am not ten.' 'No? An uncomely twattle, are ye no?' 'A twattle?' she had said. 'A mimmerkin. A dwarf.'

   2016, Shirley McKay, 1588: A Calendar of Crime

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   PIGMEO, a pigmey, a kinde of little man like a dwarfe, a dandiprat, a twattle, or an elfe. Some thinke that they be but a kind of spirits ingendred of the corruption of the earth, even as the Scarab is bread of horses doung.

   1598, John Florio, A Worlde of Wordes, page 486