CHATTER

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does chatter mean? 

• CHATTER (noun)
  The noun CHATTER has 3 senses:

1. noisy talk

2. the rapid series of noises made by the parts of a machine

3. the high-pitched continuing noise made by animals (birds or monkeys)

  Familiarity information: CHATTER used as a noun is uncommon.

• CHATTER (verb)
  The verb CHATTER has 5 senses:

1. click repeatedly or uncontrollably

2. cut unevenly with a chattering tool

3. talk socially without exchanging too much information

4. speak (about unimportant matters) rapidly and incessantly

5. make noise as if chattering away

  Familiarity information: CHATTER used as a verb is common.

 Dictionary entry details 

• CHATTER (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Noisy talk

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Synonyms:

cackle; chatter; yack; yak; yakety-yak

Hypernyms ("chatter" is a kind of...):

talk; talking (an exchange of ideas via conversation)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "chatter"):

blether; chin music; idle talk; prate; prattle (idle or foolish and irrelevant talk)

Derivation:

chatter (speak (about unimportant matters) rapidly and incessantly)

chatter (talk socially without exchanging too much information)

Sense 2

Meaning:

The rapid series of noises made by the parts of a machine

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural events

Synonyms:

chatter; chattering

Hypernyms ("chatter" is a kind of...):

noise (sound of any kind (especially unintelligible or dissonant sound))

Sense 3

Meaning:

The high-pitched continuing noise made by animals (birds or monkeys)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural events

Synonyms:

chatter; chattering

Hypernyms ("chatter" is a kind of...):

noise (sound of any kind (especially unintelligible or dissonant sound))

Derivation:

chatter (make noise as if chattering away)

• CHATTER (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they chatter    ... he / she / it chatters   
Past simple: chattered   
Past participle: chattered   
-ing form: chattering   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Click repeatedly or uncontrollably

Classified under:

Verbs of seeing, hearing, feeling

Synonyms:

chatter; click

Context example:

Chattering teeth

Hypernyms (to "chatter" is one way to...):

go; sound (make a certain noise or sound)

Sentence frame:

Something ----s

Sense 2

Meaning:

Cut unevenly with a chattering tool

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Hypernyms (to "chatter" is one way to...):

cut (separate with or as if with an instrument)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Derivation:

chattering (the rapid series of noises made by the parts of a machine)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Talk socially without exchanging too much information

Classified under:

Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing

Synonyms:

chaffer; chat; chatter; chew the fat; chit-chat; chitchat; claver; confab; confabulate; gossip; jaw; natter; shoot the breeze; visit

Context example:

the men were sitting in the cafe and shooting the breeze

Hypernyms (to "chatter" is one way to...):

converse; discourse (carry on a conversation)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "chatter"):

jawbone; schmoose; schmooze; shmoose; shmooze (talk idly or casually and in a friendly way)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s

Sentence examples:

Sam and Sue chatter
Sam wants to chatter with Sue

Derivation:

chatter (noisy talk)

chatterer (an obnoxious and foolish and loquacious talker)

Sense 4

Meaning:

Speak (about unimportant matters) rapidly and incessantly

Classified under:

Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing

Synonyms:

blab; blabber; chatter; clack; gabble; gibber; maunder; palaver; piffle; prate; prattle; tattle; tittle-tattle; twaddle

Hypernyms (to "chatter" is one way to...):

mouth; speak; talk; utter; verbalise; verbalize (express in speech)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "chatter"):

babble; blather; blether; blither; smatter (to talk foolishly)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s

Sentence example:

Sam and Sue chatter

Derivation:

chatter (noisy talk)

chatterer (an obnoxious and foolish and loquacious talker)

Sense 5

Meaning:

Make noise as if chattering away

Classified under:

Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing

Context example:

The magpies were chattering in the trees

Hypernyms (to "chatter" is one way to...):

mouth; speak; talk; utter; verbalise; verbalize (express in speech)

Sentence frame:

Something ----s

Sentence examples:

The birds chatter in the woods
The woods chatter with many kinds of birds

Derivation:

chatter (the high-pitched continuing noise made by animals (birds or monkeys))

chatterer (an obnoxious and foolish and loquacious talker)

chattering (the high-pitched continuing noise made by animals (birds or monkeys))

 Context examples 

The more he had chattered, the more remote had Ruth seemed to him.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

I have never seen any human being who appeared to be in such a pitiable fright, for his teeth were visibly chattering, and he was shaking in every limb.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

“I’m afraid, and I’m not afraid,” she chattered with shaking jaws. “It’s my miserable body, not I.”

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

“All of a shiver,” said Mr. Dick, counterfeiting that affection and making his teeth chatter.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Squirrels were chattering, birds singing, and overhead honked the wild-fowl driving up from the south in cunning wedges that split the air.

(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)

If I find him conversable, I shall be glad of his acquaintance; but if he is only a chattering coxcomb, he will not occupy much of my time or thoughts.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

It would make them sometimes hug, and sometimes tear one another; they would howl, and grin, and chatter, and reel, and tumble, and then fall asleep in the mud.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

Then, with a great deal of chattering and noise, the Winged Monkeys flew away to the place where Dorothy and her friends were walking.

(The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, by L. Frank Baum)

He walked fast, hunted by his fears, chattering to himself, skulking through the less frequented thoroughfares, counting the minutes that still divided him from midnight.

(The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

And then—ah-h-h-h!—she shivered and chattered like one in an ague-fit.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)