English Explanatory Dictionary

prate

English dictionary entry

Meanings

noun
  1. Talk to little purpose; trifling talk; unmeaningful loquacity.
verb
  1. To talk much and to little purpose; to be loquacious; to speak foolishly.

Pronunciation

/pɹeɪt/ En-us-prate.ogg

Word forms

prate prates prating prated

Etymology

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”).

Synonyms

waffle babble blabber bat the breeze blab blather carp chat chatter chew the fat chew the rag chinwag chit-chat chunner clack claver clepe drivel jabber gabble gibber go on maunder natter palaver piffle prate prattle rabbit rabbit on ramble shoot the breeze shoot the bull shoot the shit smatter tattle twaddle wibble witter yabber yack yatter yap

Derived words

prattle prateful prater pratingly prattler prate-roast
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