Forms: 3 cheater, 3–7 chater(e, 4–6 chatre, 5 chyter, chatir, chatere, shatur, 6 chytter, chattre, 5– chatter. [An onomatopœic word of frequentative form: cf. Du. koeteren to jabber, kwetteren to chatter, and Eng. twitter, jabber, etc. See also CHITTER.]
1. Of birds: To utter a rapid succession or series of short vocal sounds; now applied to sounds approaching those of the human voice, e.g., of starlings, magpies, etc., but originally used more widely, so as to include what is now called the ‘twitter’ of sparrows, swallows, etc.
(Human ‘chattering’ was originally transferred from the chattering of birds; but the ‘chattering’ of a magpie, etc., is now commonly taken as a simile from that of a human being.)
a. 1225. Ancr. R., 152. Sparuwe is a cheaterinde brid: cheatereð euer ant chirmeð … so ouh ancre … chirmen & cheateren euer hire bonen.
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., V. xxiii. (1495), 131. Small byrdes crye and chatter more than grete.
c. 1430. Lydg., Min. Poems (1840), 150 (Mätz). The stare wyl chatre.
c. 1535. Dewes, Introd. Fr., in Palsgr., 917. The byrdes chermes and chattereth.
1607. Topsell, Serpents, 610. The old ones [swallows] will fly away chattering, and chirping in mournful sort.
1611. Bible, Isa. xxxviii. 14. Like a crane or a swallow, so did I chatter; I did mourne as a doue.
1699. Dampier, Voy., II. II. ii. 66. Sometimes called Chattering Crows, because they chatter like a Magpy.
c. 1810. Wordsw., Resolution & Ind., 6. The jay makes answer as the magpie chatters.
1859. Jephson, Brittany, x. 169.
b. trans.
c. 1400. Test. Love, Prol. How should then a French man borne, such termes conne iumpere in his matter, but as the Jay chatereth English.
1616. Surflet & Markh., Countr. Farm, 234. An infinite number of pretie small Birds, which continually … doe chatter and chant their proper and naturall branch-songs.
2. Of human beings: To talk rapidly, incessantly, and with more sound than sense. Esp. said of children; but often applied vituperatively to speech which one does not like. Also said of apes and other animals whose voice suggests human chattering.
a. intr.
a. 1250. Owl & Night., 322. Thu chaterest so doth on Irish preost.
1377. Langl., P. Pl., B. XIV. 226. If he chyde or chatre Hym chieueth þe worse.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 70. Chateryn, garrio.
c. 1440. York Myst., xxvi. 180. Þou chaterist like a churle þat can chyde.
c. 1450. Why can’t be nun, 25, in E. E. P. (1862), 144. Whoso chateryt lyke a py … schalle be put owte of company.
1549. Olde, Erasm. Par. 1 Tim. v. 13. Shamefully chattring of mariage … of the naughtynes … done in other mens householdes.
1610. Shaks., Temp., II. ii. 9. Like Apes, that moe and chatter at me, And after bite me.
1853. Kingsley, Hypatia, I. ii. 20. The female slaves … worked, and chattered, and quarrelled.
1855. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., IV. 174. Chattering about what he had done for the good cause.
b. trans.
a. 1225. [see 1].
1847. Disraeli, Tancred, III. vi. He looked in at some of his creditors to chatter charming delusions.
1850. Tennyson, In Mem., lxix. They chatter’d trifles at the door.
1884. W. C. Smith, Kildrostan, 70.
| And even the girls | |
| Chatter half-atheism with as brisk an air | |
| As if it were new ribbons they discussed. |
3. Of the teeth: To make a noise by rapidly repeated collision; to shiver, shake.
a. intr. (Rarely said of the person.)
c. 1420. Anturs of Arth., xi. The schaft and the shol, shaturt to the shin.
c. 1450. Henryson, Test. Cres., 156. His tethe chattrit and shiveret with the chin.
1537. in W. H. Turner, Select Rec. Oxford, 142. I stode … in a cold ffrosty mornyng, tyll that my teeth chattred in my heed.
1605. Shaks., Lear, IV. vi. 103. When the raine came to wet me, and the winde to make me chatter.
1665–9. Boyle, Occas. Refl., II. ii. My Teeth chatter, and my whole Body does shake strongly enough to make the Bed it self do so.
1798. Southey, Eng. Eclog., iv. The evening wind already Makes one’s teeth chatter.
1863. Mrs. Oliphant, Salem Chapel, xvi. 289. Her very teeth chattered with anxiety and cold.
b. causally. To make (the teeth) chatter.
1603. Harsnet, Pop. Impost., 119. He was scarcely to be vnderstoode, the poore deuil chattered his teeth so sore.
1866. Sala, Barbary, vii. 131. Cowering in corners … gibbering and chattering their teeth like disconsolate pagods.
4. Applied to similar sounds: esp. to clatter, rattle from vibration.
1853. Pharmaceut. Jrnl., XIII. 125. It burned with the … flame … of cannel coal, and ‘chattered’ in burning.
1879. Holtzapffel, Turning, IV. 342. The vibration causes the work and the tool to ‘chatter’ upon each other.
1880. Daily News, 20 April, 2/5. He first heard one of the bars ‘chatter’ when a train was passing over the bridge.
1884. F. J. Britten, Watch & Clockm., 138. If the cutting edge is above the centre of the body pressure … causes it to ‘chatter.’
