Forms: see the vb. [f. TALK v.] The action or practice of talking.
I. 1. Speech, discourse; esp. the familiar oral intercourse of two or more persons; conversation (of a familiar kind).
c. 1475. Rauf Coilȝear, 90. Into sic talk fell thay Quhill thay war neir hame.
1565. T. Washington, trans. Nicholay’s Voy., I. xvii. 19. The talke betweene them was for this time not very long.
1697. Dryden, Virg., Ess. Georg. (1721), I. 205. Nothing which is a Phrase or Saying in common Talk, shou’d be admitted into a serious Poem.
1728. Ramsay, Bonnie Chirsty, v. Time was too precious now for tauk.
1783. Johnson, in Boswell (1816), IV. 202. We had talk enough, but no conversation; there was nothing discussed.
1847. Helps, Friends in C., I. 1. I do not, however, love good talk the less for these defects of mine.
b. With a and pl. An instance of this; a conversation.
1548. Udall, etc., Erasm. Par. Luke ix. 88. Their thoughtes and their priuie talkes behynd his backe wer not hydden … to hym.
1566. Abp. Parker, Corr. (Parker Soc.), 268. What speeches and talks be like to rise in the realm.
1658. A. Fox, Würtz’ Surg., I. ii. 3. It is not enough to be full of talks.
1871. L. Stephen, Playgr. Eur., x. (1894), 250. I had many talks with him on the hills.
Mod. I had a long talk with him on the matter.
2. A more or less formal or public oral interchange of views, opinions, or propositions; a conference. b. A palaver, a pow-wow with savages; also a verbal message to or from these.
1550. Bale, Eng. Votaries, II. (1551), 88. At the lattre they came to talkes and to nyghte metynges.
1560. Daus, trans. Sleidane’s Comm., 229. Themperoure had appoynted a talke of learned men at Regenspurge. Ibid., 441 b. Assaied by talcke and conference of learned men.
1760. St. Papers, in Ann. Reg., 231/1. He [Amer. Indian] told the governor he would give his talk the next day; he said he had come with a good talk.
1768. Chron., ibid., 89/1. Captain Paterson had sent a talk to the great island, to disclaim the murders, and to pacify the Indians.
1791. W. Bartram, Carolina, 210. The talks (or messages between the Indians and white people) were perfectly peaceable and friendly…. Bad talks from the Nation is always a very serious affair.
1837. W. Irving, Capt. Bonneville, III. 114. Indians generally are very lofty, rhetorical, and figurative in their language at all great talks, and high ceremonials.
3. Mention (of a subject); making of statements and remarks; rumor; gossip; an instance of this.
1560. Daus, trans. Sleidane’s Comm., 370 b. In the Emperors court was … no talcke of it, and made as they knew not therof.
1577. F. de L’isle’s Legendarie, A viij b. His brother … who, as the talke went, was sore ouerlayed with Anabaptistes.
1677. Wood, Life, April (O.H.S.), II. 372. Easter Week, great talk of a comet appearing in England.
a. 1768. Abp. Secker, Serm., Tit. ii. 6 (1770), III. iii. 68. It will not raise so early or so great a Talk about you.
1866. Mrs. Gaskell, Wives & Dau., xlvii. That would make a talk.
1887. Goldw. Smith, in Contemp. Rev., July, 3. A High Commissioner … has been sent to England, and there is talk of sending another to Washington.
4. The subject, theme, or occasion of topical conversation, esp. of current gossip or rumor.
1624. Massinger, Parl. Love, IV. b. Live to be the talk or the conduit and the bakehouse.
1703. Congreve, Tears Amaryllis, 107. Wert thou not … The Joy of Sight, the Talk of ev’ry Tongue?
1849. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., viii. II. 325. Just when these letters were the talk of all London.
1871. R. Ellis, Catullus, xliii. 6. Thou the beauty, the talk of all the province?
II. 5. Utterance of words, speaking (to others), speech; = TALKING vbl. sb.; also, contemptuously, empty words, verbiage.
Big talk, tall talk, speaking in a boastful or exaggerated style; see also SMALL TALK.
1539. Taverner, Erasm. Prov., 19. As the man is, so is his talke.
1560. Daus, trans. Sleidane’s Comm., 363 b. Seldie had the talk, and … propoundeth questions.
1651–7. T. Barker, Art of Angling (1820), 6. That is but talk.
1848. Thackeray, Van. Fair, xxx. But these were mere by-gone days and talk.
1858. Lytton, What will he do, I. iii. It is I who have all the talk now.
1869. [see TALL a. 8 b].
1871. L. Stephen, Playgr. Eur., xiii. (1894), 308. Tall talk is luckily an object of suspicion to Englishmen.
1895. Pall Mall G., 8 Oct., 1/3. There is nothing like big talk to draw contributions from a credulous peasantry.
b. Applied to writing of the nature of familiar or loose speech.
1552. Ascham, in Lett. Lit. Men (Camden), 13. Purposing elsewhan to troble yow with the taulk of longer lettres.
1884. Chr. Commonwealth, 14 Feb., 416/1. Columns of wild, inflammatory, and dangerous talk are appearing in most of our newspapers.
1887. Ruskin, Præterita, II. i. 1. This second volume must, I fear, be less pleasing…. The talk must be less of other persons, and more of myself.
c. fig.
1868. Hawthorne, Amer. Note-Bks., II. 218. With so vivid a talk of countenance that it was precisely as if she had spoken.
1879. Stevenson, Trav. Cevennes (1886), 130. The indescribable quiet talk of the runnel over the stones.
6. Ordinary manner of speech; way of speaking; native language or dialect; lingo.
a. 1788. T. Ritson, in Mrs. Wheeler, Cumbld. Dial. (1821), App. 2. Yan cudnt tell thare toke be geese.
1890. Jrnl. Arthrop. Instit., Feb., 396. [If they do not] speak the same language … the man stays in his own island, and the woman learns his ‘talk.’
7. Comb.: † talk-stuff, matter for conversation.
1598. Marston, Sco. Villanie, III. xi. 22. [He] For want of talk-stuffe, fals to foinery, Out goes his rapier.
