Sc. and north. dial. [Of uncertain origin. Somewhat similar are Gaelic clabaire, clabhraichean babbler; also obs. Du. kalaberen ‘inter se in utramque partem de variis rebus otiose suaves iucundosque sermones conferre’ (Kilian); and Ger. klaffern, kläffern, ‘garrulare,’ to chatter, blab, (‘viel schweigen ist kunst, viel kläffern bringt ungunst’). The last agrees best in sense, but it is not easy to conceive how, being a High German word, it could have been adopted in Scotland c. 1600.]
intr. To talk idly, or with little sense; to gossip, palaver, prate.
a. 1605. [see CLAVERING].
a. 1715. Sc. Pasquils (1868), 395. When ye clatter then, and claver, Ye sprinkle all their necks with slaver.
1815. Scott, Guy M., xxii. ‘Clavering about thae auldwarld stories.’ Ibid. (1818), Hrt. Midl., xx. ‘A worthy minister, as gude a man … as ever ye heard claver in a pu’pit.’
1850. G. P. R. James, Old Oak Chest, III. 14. ‘I’m no given to clavering of other people’s concerns.’
1876. Whitby Gloss. (E. D. S.), Clavver, to contend, to chatter.
Hence Claverer, one who clavers, a babbler; Clavering ppl. a.
1606. trans. Rollock on 2 Thess., 140 (Jam.). Busie bodies, clauerers, and pratlers.
a. 1605. Montgomerie, Flyting, 617. An clauering cohoobie.
1722–30. Ramsay, Fables, Clock & Dial. Ne’er brag of constant clavering cant.
1816. Scott, Old Mort., vii. ‘A lang-tongued clavering wife.’ Ibid. (1822), Nigel, v. K. James: Haud your clavering tongue.
