subs. (colloquial).—1.  Idle, loquacious talk; gossip; prattle—an exceedingly old usage. For synonyms, see PATTER.

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  c. 1440.  York Plays, XXXIV., 211. Ther quenes vs comeres with þer CLAKKE.  [M.]

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  1599.  NASHE, Lenten Stuffe [GROSART, Works, V., 251]. Their CLACKE or gabbling to this purport.

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  1678.  BUTLER, Hudibras, pt. III., canto. ii.

        And, with his everlasting CLACK,
Set all men’s ears upon the rack.

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  1748.  SMOLLETT, Roderick Random, ch. liv. I dreaded her unruly tongue, and felt by anticipation the horrors of an eternal CLACK!

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  1812.  H. and J. SMITH, Rejected Addresses (‘Punch’s Apotheosis’).

        See she twists her mutton fists like Molyneux or Beelzebub
And t’other’s CLACK, who pats her back, is louder far than Hell’s hubbub.

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  1888.  PAYN, The Mystery of Mirbridge (Tauchn.), II., xviii., 197. The old fellow would have had a CLACK with her.  [M.]

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  2.  (common).—The tongue [i.e., that which CLACKS (q.v.), verb.] A more ancient form was CLAP dating back to 1225.

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  ENGLISH SYNONYMS.  Glib; red-rag; clapper; dubber; velvet; jibb; quail-pipe.

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  FRENCH SYNONYMS.  La diligence de Rome (popular); un battant (thieves’: also ‘heart,’ ‘stomach,’ and ‘throat’); un bon battant (‘a nimble tongue.’ Cf., ‘clapper’); une chiffe or un chiffon rouge (popular); une gaffe; le grelot.

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  GERMAN SYNONYM.  Lecker (literally ‘the licker’).

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  ITALIAN SYNONYMS.  Serpentina; dannoso (literally ‘damagable’); zavarina (properly ‘a trifling old woman’).

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  SPANISH SYNONYM.  La desosada (i.e., Old Boneless).

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  1598.  GREENE, The Scottish Historie of James the Fourth, wks. (GROSART) XIII., 210. Haud your CLACKS, lads.  [M.]

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  1748.  T. DYCHE, A New General English Dictionary (5 ed.). CLACK (s.) … also a nickname for a woman’s tongue; a prattler or busybody.

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  1828.  DISRAELI, Commentaries on the Life and Reign of Charles the First, King of England, II., i., 23. Who, as all washerwomen are accustomed at their work, could not hold their clack.  [M.]

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  1864.  E. SARGENT, Peculiar, III., 76. To hermetically seal up this Mrs. Gentry’s CLACK.  [M.]

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  Verb.—To gabble. For synonyms, see PATTER.

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