Tattle

/ˈtæt(ə)l/ · verb

Meaning

(intransitive) To chatter; to gossip..

Definitions by Sense

1. (intransitive) To chatter; to gossip.
2. (intransitive, Canada, US, derogatory) 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.
3. (intransitive, obsolete) To speak like a baby or young child; to babble, to prattle; to speak haltingly; to stutter.
4. (countable) A tattletale.
5. (countable, Canada, US, derogatory) Often said of children: a piece of incriminating information or an account of wrongdoing that is said about another person.
6. (uncountable) Idle talk; gossip; (countable) an instance of such talk or gossip.

Example Sentences

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.

By this time, My Lord, I doubt not but that you wonder, why I have run off from my Biaſs ſo long together, and made ſo tedious a Digreſſion from Satire to Heroique Poetry. But if You will not excuſe it, by the tattling Quality of Age, which, as Sir William Davenant ſays, is always Narrative; yet I hope the uſefulneſs of what I have to ſay on this Subject, will qualifie the remoteneſs of it; […]

Nor can any Man be either wiſe or happy till he hath arrived to that greatneſs of Mind, that no more conſiders the tatling of the multitude than the whiſtling of the Wind.

She tattled on: first to one, then to the other—then to all, till she had tattled herself out of breath;—and then the orthodox half hour had expired, and the bell was rung, and the carriage ordered, and Mrs. Hare rose to depart.

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 another child and just don't know any other way to handle the problem.

I trapped the girls inside their tent / Someone tattled on me / Put a frog in the bathroom vent / Someone tattled on me / Gave my dinner to a bear / Put a snake in Auntie's chair / And a tick in Gramp's rootbeer / Someone tattled on me

Vera is a kindergarten student who loves to be the center of adult attention. She has a quick temper and frequently talks out in class. She also frequently "tattles" on other students.

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.

Synonyms for tattle

Antonyms for tattle

Related Words

Word Forms

• tattles
• tattling
• tattled

Usage Notes

Choose a synonym only when it preserves the intended meaning, tone, and grammar of the full sentence.

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