English Explanatory Dictionary

tattle

English dictionary entry

Meanings

verb
  1. To chatter; to gossip.
  2. Often said of children: to report incriminating information about another person, or a person's wrongdoing in an annoying fashion, usually to a person in a position of authority over the accused person; to tell on somebody.
  3. To speak like a baby or young child; to babble, to prattle; to speak haltingly; to stutter.
noun
  1. A tattletale.
  2. Often said of children: a piece of incriminating information or an account of wrongdoing that is said about another person.
  3. Idle talk; gossip; (countable) an instance of such talk or gossip.

Pronunciation

/ˈtæt(ə)l/ /ˈtætl̩/ [-æɾl̩] en-au-tattle.ogg

Word forms

tattle tattles tattling tattled

Etymology

From Middle Dutch tatelen, tateren (“to babble, chatter”) (modern Dutch tatelen, tateren (“to talk, chatter”)), originally imitative. The word is cognate with Saterland Frisian tätelje (“to talk nonsense, babble”), Middle Low German tāteren, tadderen (“to babble, chatter”) (whence modern German Low German tatern (“to chatter”)), Low German tateln, täteln (“to cackle, gabble”). Compare also Middle English dadel, dadull (“tattling, gossip”), and its alteration twaddle.

Synonyms

prattle rat out informant gossiper chatter clatfart goss gossip gossipry labrish scuttlebutt skeet tale tattle tidbit tittle-tattle twittle-twattle telltale tit

Related words

snitches get stitches twattle gossip column hoax indiscretion lie rumour slander scandal sheet slambook tab tabloid yellow press gossiper

Derived words

tattler tattlesome tattletale tattle tell tattling tittle-tattle
This entry uses open data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA/GFDL). Word forms are used for search and are not indexed as separate pages.
Back to search All on T Russian dictionary Dahl dictionary