"tittle-tattle" meaning in English

See tittle-tattle in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

Forms: tittle-tattles [plural]
Etymology: Reduplication of tattle. Etymology templates: {{m|en|tattle}} tattle Head templates: {{en-noun|~}} tittle-tattle (countable and uncountable, plural tittle-tattles)
  1. (uncountable) Petty, idle gossip. Tags: uncountable Translations (idle gossip): празни приказки (prazni prikazki) [feminine, plural] (Bulgarian), sladder [common-gender] (Danish), sermunculus [masculine] (Latin), pōtinitini (Maori), tūtara (Maori), slarv [neuter] (Norwegian Bokmål), sladder [masculine] (Norwegian Bokmål)
    Sense id: en-tittle-tattle-en-noun-EHjVdZtO Categories (other): English apophonic reduplications, English entries with incorrect language header, English entries with language name categories using raw markup, English entries with topic categories using raw markup, English terms with non-redundant non-automated sortkeys Disambiguation of English apophonic reduplications: 53 22 12 12 Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 68 17 10 5 Disambiguation of English entries with language name categories using raw markup: 68 18 11 4 Disambiguation of English entries with topic categories using raw markup: 69 13 13 4 Disambiguation of English terms with non-redundant non-automated sortkeys: 77 12 7 5 Disambiguation of 'idle gossip': 60 40
  2. An idle, trifling talker; a gossip. Tags: countable, uncountable Categories (topical): People
    Sense id: en-tittle-tattle-en-noun-vWNZVgJR Disambiguation of People: 36 64 0 0

Verb

Forms: tittle-tattles [present, singular, third-person], tittle-tattling [participle, present], tittle-tattled [participle, past], tittle-tattled [past]
Etymology: Reduplication of tattle. Etymology templates: {{m|en|tattle}} tattle Head templates: {{en-verb}} tittle-tattle (third-person singular simple present tittle-tattles, present participle tittle-tattling, simple past and past participle tittle-tattled)
  1. To engage in gossip.
    Sense id: en-tittle-tattle-en-verb-rU5tJq32
  2. To spread gossip.
    Sense id: en-tittle-tattle-en-verb-fBvE2Atl

Inflected forms

Download JSON data for tittle-tattle meaning in English (4.9kB)

{
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "tattle"
      },
      "expansion": "tattle",
      "name": "m"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "Reduplication of tattle.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "tittle-tattles",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "~"
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      "expansion": "tittle-tattle (countable and uncountable, plural tittle-tattles)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "_dis": "53 22 12 12",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English apophonic reduplications",
          "parents": [
            "Apophonic reduplications",
            "Reduplications",
            "Terms by etymology"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "68 17 10 5",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "68 18 11 4",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with language name categories using raw markup",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with language name categories using raw markup",
            "Entry maintenance"
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          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "69 13 13 4",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with topic categories using raw markup",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with topic categories using raw markup",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "77 12 7 5",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English terms with non-redundant non-automated sortkeys",
          "parents": [
            "Terms with non-redundant non-automated sortkeys",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "2023 October 6, Ryan Gilbey, “The double life of Rock Hudson: ‘Let’s be frank, he was a horndog!’”, in The Guardian, →ISSN",
          "text": "And, when rumours about him surfaced in the form of insinuating magazine articles demanding to know why he hadn’t found a wife yet, his wily agent Henry Willson made sure that none of them stuck, even if it meant leaking tittle-tattle about other clients instead.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Petty, idle gossip."
      ],
      "id": "en-tittle-tattle-en-noun-EHjVdZtO",
      "links": [
        [
          "Petty",
          "petty"
        ],
        [
          "idle",
          "idle"
        ],
        [
          "gossip",
          "gossip"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(uncountable) Petty, idle gossip."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "uncountable"
      ],
      "translations": [
        {
          "_dis1": "60 40",
          "code": "bg",
          "lang": "Bulgarian",
          "roman": "prazni prikazki",
          "sense": "idle gossip",
          "tags": [
            "feminine",
            "plural"
          ],
          "word": "празни приказки"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "60 40",
          "code": "da",
          "lang": "Danish",
          "sense": "idle gossip",
          "tags": [
            "common-gender"
          ],
          "word": "sladder"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "60 40",
          "code": "la",
          "lang": "Latin",
          "sense": "idle gossip",
          "tags": [
            "masculine"
          ],
          "word": "sermunculus"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "60 40",
          "code": "mi",
          "lang": "Maori",
          "sense": "idle gossip",
          "word": "pōtinitini"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "60 40",
          "code": "mi",
          "lang": "Maori",
          "sense": "idle gossip",
          "word": "tūtara"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "60 40",
          "code": "nb",
          "lang": "Norwegian Bokmål",
          "sense": "idle gossip",
          "tags": [
            "neuter"
          ],
          "word": "slarv"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "60 40",
          "code": "nb",
          "lang": "Norwegian Bokmål",
          "sense": "idle gossip",
          "tags": [
            "masculine"
          ],
          "word": "sladder"
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "_dis": "36 64 0 0",
          "kind": "topical",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "People",
          "orig": "en:People",
          "parents": [
            "Human",
            "All topics",
            "Fundamental"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1777, The Tatler; Or, Lucubrations of Isaac Bickerstaff, Esq, volume 4, Dublin: W. Whitestone, W. Watson, J. Williams, W. Wilson, edition of The Tatler n° 268 (1710) by Richard Steele, page 324",
          "text": "If I can once extirpate the race of solid and substantial humdrums, I hope by my wholesome and repeated advices, quickly to reduce the insignificant tittle-tattles and matter-of-fact-men that abound in every quarter of this great city.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "An idle, trifling talker; a gossip."
      ],
      "id": "en-tittle-tattle-en-noun-vWNZVgJR",
      "tags": [
        "countable",
        "uncountable"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "tittle-tattle"
}

{
  "etymology_templates": [
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      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "tattle"
      },
      "expansion": "tattle",
      "name": "m"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "Reduplication of tattle.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "tittle-tattles",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "tittle-tattling",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "tittle-tattled",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "tittle-tattled",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "tittle-tattle (third-person singular simple present tittle-tattles, present participle tittle-tattling, simple past and past participle tittle-tattled)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1897, Richard Marsh, The Beetle",
          "text": "‘I hope you two have been mewed in with that old pussy long enough. While you’ve been tittle-tattling I’ve been doing, — listen to what this bobby’s got to say.’",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To engage in gossip."
      ],
      "id": "en-tittle-tattle-en-verb-rU5tJq32"
    },
    {
      "glosses": [
        "To spread gossip."
      ],
      "id": "en-tittle-tattle-en-verb-fBvE2Atl"
    }
  ],
  "word": "tittle-tattle"
}
{
  "categories": [
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    "English countable nouns",
    "English entries with incorrect language header",
    "English entries with language name categories using raw markup",
    "English entries with topic categories using raw markup",
    "English lemmas",
    "English multiword terms",
    "English nouns",
    "English terms with non-redundant non-automated sortkeys",
    "English uncountable nouns",
    "English verbs",
    "en:People"
  ],
  "etymology_templates": [
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      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "tattle"
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  ],
  "etymology_text": "Reduplication of tattle.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "tittle-tattles",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
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    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "~"
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      "expansion": "tittle-tattle (countable and uncountable, plural tittle-tattles)",
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  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English terms with quotations",
        "English uncountable nouns"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "2023 October 6, Ryan Gilbey, “The double life of Rock Hudson: ‘Let’s be frank, he was a horndog!’”, in The Guardian, →ISSN",
          "text": "And, when rumours about him surfaced in the form of insinuating magazine articles demanding to know why he hadn’t found a wife yet, his wily agent Henry Willson made sure that none of them stuck, even if it meant leaking tittle-tattle about other clients instead.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Petty, idle gossip."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "Petty",
          "petty"
        ],
        [
          "idle",
          "idle"
        ],
        [
          "gossip",
          "gossip"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(uncountable) Petty, idle gossip."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "uncountable"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        "English terms with quotations"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1777, The Tatler; Or, Lucubrations of Isaac Bickerstaff, Esq, volume 4, Dublin: W. Whitestone, W. Watson, J. Williams, W. Wilson, edition of The Tatler n° 268 (1710) by Richard Steele, page 324",
          "text": "If I can once extirpate the race of solid and substantial humdrums, I hope by my wholesome and repeated advices, quickly to reduce the insignificant tittle-tattles and matter-of-fact-men that abound in every quarter of this great city.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "An idle, trifling talker; a gossip."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "countable",
        "uncountable"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "translations": [
    {
      "code": "bg",
      "lang": "Bulgarian",
      "roman": "prazni prikazki",
      "sense": "idle gossip",
      "tags": [
        "feminine",
        "plural"
      ],
      "word": "празни приказки"
    },
    {
      "code": "da",
      "lang": "Danish",
      "sense": "idle gossip",
      "tags": [
        "common-gender"
      ],
      "word": "sladder"
    },
    {
      "code": "la",
      "lang": "Latin",
      "sense": "idle gossip",
      "tags": [
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "sermunculus"
    },
    {
      "code": "mi",
      "lang": "Maori",
      "sense": "idle gossip",
      "word": "pōtinitini"
    },
    {
      "code": "mi",
      "lang": "Maori",
      "sense": "idle gossip",
      "word": "tūtara"
    },
    {
      "code": "nb",
      "lang": "Norwegian Bokmål",
      "sense": "idle gossip",
      "tags": [
        "neuter"
      ],
      "word": "slarv"
    },
    {
      "code": "nb",
      "lang": "Norwegian Bokmål",
      "sense": "idle gossip",
      "tags": [
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "sladder"
    }
  ],
  "word": "tittle-tattle"
}

{
  "categories": [
    "English apophonic reduplications",
    "English countable nouns",
    "English entries with incorrect language header",
    "English entries with language name categories using raw markup",
    "English entries with topic categories using raw markup",
    "English lemmas",
    "English multiword terms",
    "English nouns",
    "English terms with non-redundant non-automated sortkeys",
    "English uncountable nouns",
    "English verbs",
    "en:People"
  ],
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
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        "2": "tattle"
      },
      "expansion": "tattle",
      "name": "m"
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  ],
  "etymology_text": "Reduplication of tattle.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "tittle-tattles",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "tittle-tattling",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "tittle-tattled",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "tittle-tattled",
      "tags": [
        "past"
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  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "tittle-tattle (third-person singular simple present tittle-tattles, present participle tittle-tattling, simple past and past participle tittle-tattled)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English terms with quotations",
        "Quotation templates to be cleaned"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1897, Richard Marsh, The Beetle",
          "text": "‘I hope you two have been mewed in with that old pussy long enough. While you’ve been tittle-tattling I’ve been doing, — listen to what this bobby’s got to say.’",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To engage in gossip."
      ]
    },
    {
      "glosses": [
        "To spread gossip."
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "tittle-tattle"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-05-01 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-04-21 using wiktextract (f4fd8c9 and c9440ce). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.