enter the chat

Verb

enter the chat (third-person singular simple present enters the chat, present participle entering the chat, simple past and past participle entered the chat)

1. (Internet) To abruptly appear.
   • Coordinate term: leave the chat
   • About a year before the pandemic entered the chat, I got an invitation to participate in a documentary. The email from the director, W. Kamau Bell, started along the lines of, "I totally understand if you do not want to do this." I was intrigued.2022 February 14, Tressie McMillan Cottom, “We Weren't Wrong to Love 'The Cosby Show'”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on...
2. (Internet, humorous) Used to draw attention to the existence or presence of something.
   • - Black people have no power in America.
     - Barack Obama has entered the chat.
3. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see enter, the, chat.
   • Naturally, you'll be able to chat in real-time with that friend, presumably about the song or the band in question. Friends and "friends of friends" can join up via their activity feeds, and they too enter the chat.2012 January 12, Eliot Van Buskirk, “Facebook Unveils Real-Time Social Listening”, in Wired, San Francisco, Calif.: Condé Nast Publications, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 22 Mar 2023