Word.ws English Dictionary

blathering

blathering is the present participle and gerund of blather.

Noun

blathering (plural blatherings)

  1. Incoherent or foolish talk.
    • the blatherings of a madman
  2. Meaningless nonsense.
    • the constant blathering of the TV

Meaning of blather

Verb

blather (third-person singular simple present blathers, present participle blathering, simple past and past participle blathered)

  1. (derogatory, intransitive) To talk rapidly without making much sense.
    • “There you go blatherin’,” said Brindle, intending a mild rebuke.1866, George Eliot [pseudonym; Mary Ann Evans], chapter XI, in Felix Holt, the Radical […], volume I, Edinburgh; London: William Blackwood and Sons, →OCLC, page 249
  2. (derogatory, transitive) To say (something foolish or nonsensical); to say (something) in a foolish or overly verbose way.
    • Then, just before the wedding, the old man feels he’s honor bound to tell his future son-in-law the secret of his past; so the damned idiot blathers the whole story of his killing the man and breaking jail!1929, Eugene O’Neill, Dynamo, New York, N.Y.: Liveright, act I, scene i, page 31

See all 3 meanings of blather

Forms of blathering

pluralblatherings

Questions about blathering

What does blathering mean?
Blathering means incoherent or foolish talk.
What is blathering the present participle and gerund of?
Blathering is the present participle and gerund of blather.
What part of speech is blathering?
Blathering is a noun.
What is the plural of blathering?
The plural of blathering is blatherings.

Words near blathering in the dictionary

  1. blathered
  2. blatherer
  3. blatherers
  4. blatheries
  5. blatherin'
  6. blathering
  7. blatherings
  8. blathers
  9. blatherskate
  10. blatherskates
  11. blatherskite

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: blathering (page history and authors); blather (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “blathering.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/blathering. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.