Sc. and north. dial. Also (?) 6 blother. [ME. blather, a. ON. blaðra to talk stupidly, f. blaðr nonsense. Blather is the etymological form, blether being Sc. and north. Eng. (like gether = gather etc.). But in mod. Eng., the word is generally accepted as Scotch (from Burns, Scott, Carlyle, etc.) and in the Scotch form. In U.S. blather appears to be more frequent.
1. intr. To talk nonsense loquaciously.
1524. A. Scott, Vision, xix. And limpand Vulcan blethers.
[1526. Skelton, Magnyf., 1049. I blunder, I bluster, I blowe and I blother.]
1787. Burns, Holy Fair, viii. Some are busy blethrin Right loud that day.
1867. E. Waugh, Owd Bl., iv. 89, in Lanc. Gloss. He blether’t abeawt religion.
1884. Punch, 1 March, 102. Fluent folly may maunder and blether.
b. trans. To babble.
1810. Tannahill, Poems (1846), 145. She blethered it round.
2. intr. To cry loudly, to blubber. dial.
1863. Mrs. Toogood, Yorksh. Dial., s.v., What’s thou blethering at? child.
1855. Whitby Gloss., Blether, to blubber, to weep aloud.
