tattle

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tattle

/ˈtæt(ə)l/ UK
/ˈtætl̩/ US
[-æɾl̩] US

Rhymes with -ætəl

Where it comes from

From Middle Dutch tatelen, tateren (“to babble, chatter”) (modern Dutch tatelen, tateren (“to talk, chatter”)), originally imitative. The word is cognate with Saterland Frisian tätelje (“to talk nonsense, babble”), Middle Low German tāteren, tadderen (“to babble, chatter”) (whence modern German Low German tatern (“to chatter”)), Low German tateln, täteln (“to cackle, gabble”). Compare also Middle English dadel, dadull (“tattling, gossip”), and its alteration twaddle.

verb tattles · tattling · tattled

intransitive To chatter; to gossip. He were an excellent man that were made iuſt in the mid-way between him and Benedick, the one is too like an image and ſaies nothing, and the other too like my ladies eldeſt ſonne, euermore tatling.
Canada, US, derogatory, intransitive Often said of children: to report incriminating information about another person, or a person's wrongdoing in an annoying fashion, usually to a person in a position of authority over the accused person; to tell on somebody. There are some children who just like to talk about others. They are not reporting. They are tattling, telling one negative after another. Their goal is to get others in trouble. […] Children sometimes do not mean to tattle about someone else. They do it because they are having a problem with anothe
intransitive, obsolete To speak like a baby or young child; to babble, to prattle; to speak haltingly; to stutter. But who can give to his leasing a conclusion, and pronounce it without tatelying, like as it were written tofore him, and that he can so blind the people that his leasing shall better be believed than the truth: that is the man.

noun tattles

countable A tattletale. We agree on almost nothing, everything is a battle / Every secret from him is kept, his rep is being a tattle
Canada, US, countable, derogatory Often said of children: a piece of incriminating information or an account of wrongdoing that is said about another person. Have a special small bucket called the tattle bucket. Make name cards for each child. […] When children have a tattle, instead of disrupting the class, they get their name card and put it in the tattle bucket. Look in the bucket at varying times during the day. If you see a name card, go to the chil
uncountable Idle talk; gossip; (countable) an instance of such talk or gossip. Prattles and Tattles, / O'er Bottles, / Shall ſtill cheriſh my Fancy, / Better, and ſweeter, / And greater, / Than dull Tea with Nancy.

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