tattle

Meaning

Verb

1. To chatter; to gossip.
2. Often said of children: to report incriminating information about another person, or a person's wrongdoing; to tell on somebody.
3. (obsolete) To speak like a baby or young child; to babble, to prattle; to speak haltingly; to stutter.

Noun

1. A tattletale.
2. Often said of children: a piece of incriminating information or an account of wrongdoing that is said about another person.
3. Idle talk; gossip; (countable) an instance of such talk or gossip.

Synonyms

gossip

chatter

blab

prattle

prate

piffle

palaver

gabble

blabber

tittle-tattle

twaddle

gibber

maunder

babble

clack

singing

peach

🍑

tell tales

telling

talk

🗣️

tell on

spill the beans

bruit

rumor

rumour

sing

let the cat out of the bag

accuse

complain

inform

babble out

blab out

idle talk

shmooze

be talkative

be widely spoken

rattle away

chin wag

chin wagging

chin-wagging

shmoose

jenny

adumbrate

betray

chin-wag

comment

gab

gabfest

give an account

gossiping

grieve

hearsay

jabber

lament

natter

outline

pass around

rat

🐀

report

say

🗣️

schmooze

scuttlebutt

sue

tell

tittle tattle

schmoose

unwrap

waffle

🧇

yammer

yap

gossipmongering

inform against

report on

shoot the breeze

Hyphenated as

tat‧tle

Pronounced as (IPA)

/ˈtæt(ə)l/

Etymology

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.