talk

Let's sit down and talk.

Although I don't speak Chinese, I managed to talk with the villagers using signs and gestures.

I will buy with you, sell with you, talk with you, walk with you, and so following, but I will not eat with you.

c. 1596–1598 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene iii], page 166:

Then he commenced to talk, really talk. and inside of two flaps of a herring's fin he had me mesmerized, like Eben Holt's boy at the town hall show. He talked about the ills of humanity, and the glories of health and Nature and service and land knows what all. […] It was a chance he was offering me, a wonderful, eighteen carat, solid gold chance.

1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter IV, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y., London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC, page 99:

Mr. Campion appeared suitably impressed and she warmed to him. He was very easy to talk to with those long clown lines in his pale face, a natural goon, born rather too early she suspected.

1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 5, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC:

Let’s go to my office and talk. ― I like to talk with you, Ms. Weaver.
Audio (US): (file)

2016, VOA Learning English (public domain)

“[…] They talk of you as if you were Croesus—and I expect the beggars sponge on you unconscionably.” And Vickers launched forth into a tirade very different from his platform utterances. He spoke with extreme contempt of the dense stupidity exhibited on all occasions by the working classes.

1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter XXV, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC, page 203:

(intransitive) To communicate, usually by means of speech.

They sat down to talk business.

That's enough about work, let's talk holidays!

(transitive, informal) To discuss; to talk about.

We talk French sometimes.

(transitive) To speak (a certain language).

Are you interested in the job? They're talking big money.

We're not talking rocket science here: it should be easy.

(transitive, informal, chiefly used in progressive tenses) Used to emphasise the importance, size, complexity etc. of the thing mentioned.

Suppose he talks?

She can be relied upon not to talk.

They tried to make me talk.

(intransitive, slang) To confess, especially implicating others.

I am not the one to talk.

She is a fine one to talk.

You should talk.

Look who's talking.

(intransitive) To criticize someone for something of which one is guilty oneself.

People will talk.

Aren't you afraid the neighbours will talk?

(intransitive) To gossip; to create scandal.

Remember that Christ and Christianity may not always be the same thing; e.g. Jerry Falwell talks "Christianity" but practices hatred […] which is diametrically opposed to what Jesus really taught.

1979 December 22, S. J. Harris, “Life And Spirit”, in Gay Community News, volume 2, number 22, page 5:

(transitive) To manifest outwardly in speech, as opposed to reality or action.

That's not like you at all, Jared. The drugs are talking. Snap out of it!

"So, are you going to give up all this good living and easy money and come fly for the Russians?"
"Hello no. I told you that yesterday."
"That was your wallet talking. The shooting has started. Now I appeal to your patriotism, your manhood, your sense of duty."

(informal, chiefly used in progressive tenses) To influence someone to express something, especially a particular stance or viewpoint or in a particular manner.

en-verb

talk (third-person singular simple present talks, present participle talking, simple past and past participle talked)

talks (present singular third-person)
talking (participle present)
talked (participle past)
talked (past)
talk (infinitive)

talk to Ralph on the big white telephone

talk to the hand 'cause the face ain't listening

you don't know what you're talking about

溝通

to communicate by other means than speech

From Middle English talken, talkien, from Old English *tealcian (“to talk, chat”), from Proto-West Germanic *talkōn, from Proto-Germanic *talkōną (“to talk, chatter”), frequentative form of Proto-Germanic *talōną (“to count, recount, tell”), from Proto-Indo-European *dol-, *del- (“to aim, calculate, adjust, count”), equivalent to tell + -k.
Cognate with Scots talk (“to talk”), Low German taalken (“to talk”). Related also to Danish tale (“to talk, speak”), Swedish tala (“to talk, speak, say, chatter”), Icelandic tala (“to talk”), Norwegian tale (“speech”), Old English talian (“to count, calculate, reckon, account, consider, think, esteem, value; argue; tell, relate; impute, assign”). More at tale. Despite the surface similarity, unrelated to Proto-Indo-European *telkʷ- (“to talk”) (due to Grimm's law), which is the source of loquacious.


talk

We need to have a talk about your homework.

All this was extraordinarily distasteful to Churchill.[…]Never before had he felt such repulsion when the vicar displayed his characteristic bluntness or coarseness of speech. In the present connection—or rather as a transition from the subject that started their conversation—such talk had been distressingly out of place.

1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter XXIV, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC, pages 198–199:

A conversation or discussion; usually serious, but informal.

There is a talk on Shakespeare tonight.

There's been talk lately about the two of them.

She is the talk of the day.

The musical is the talk of the town.

(preceded by the; often qualified by a following of) A major topic of social discussion.

preceded by the; often qualified by a following of; preceded by the; often qualified by a following of

Have you had the talk with Jay yet?

(preceded by the) A customary conversation by parent(s) or guardian(s) with their (often teenage) child about a reality of life; in particular:

A customary conversation in which parent(s) explain sexual intercourse to their child.

Later, I made sure to have the talk with my son about being a black boy, […]

2012, Crystal McCrary, Inspiration: Profiles of Black Women Changing Our World, →ISBN:

All the black parents I have ever spoken to have had “the talk” with their sons and daughters. “The talk” is a conversation about how to behave and not to behave with police.

2016, Jim Wallis, America's Original Sin: Racism, White Privilege, and the Bridge, →ISBN:

Now, I was a black man in the South, and my folks had had “the talk” with me. No, not the one about the birds and bees. This one is about the black man and the police.

2016, Stuart Scott, Larry Platt, Every Day I Fight, →ISBN, page 36:

(US) A customary conversation in which the parent(s) of a black child explain the racism and violence they may face, especially when interacting with police, and strategies to manage it.

The party leader's speech was all talk.

(uncountable, not preceded by an article) Empty boasting, promises or claims.

The leaders of the G8 nations are currently in talks over nuclear weapons.

(usually in the plural) Meeting to discuss a particular matter.

en-noun

talk (countable and uncountable, plural talks)

From Middle English talk, talke (“conversation; discourse”), from the verb (see above).