palaver
UK/pəˈlɑː.və(ɹ)/
palaver noun: a village council meeting.
Noun
palaver (countable and uncountable, plural palavers)
- A village council meeting.
- Here we remained four days, on account of a palaver which was held on the following occasion.1799, Mungo Park, Travels in the Interior of Africa
- That night the village warriors held a big palaver to celebrate their victories, and to choose a new chief.1913, Edgar Rice Burroughs, The Return of Tarzan, New York: Ballantine Books, published 1963, page 148
- Talk, especially unnecessary talk; chatter.
- Frances pulled his hair heartily, and then went and seated herself on her husband’s knee, and there they were, like two babies, kissing and talking nonsense by the hour—foolish palaver that we should be ashamed of.1847, Emily Brontë, chapter III, in Wuthering Heights
- These remarks were received with a differing demonstration: some of the company declaring that if the Dutchman cared to come round and smoke a pipe they would be glad to see him—perhaps he'd show where the thumbscrews had been put on; others being strongly of the opinion that they didn't want any...1886, Henry James, The Princess Casamassima, London: Macmillan and Co.
- Synonyms:
- hot air, babble, bavardage, bibble-babble, blab, blabber, blabbing, blather, blathering, chatter
- Mentally draining activity, either physical or fuss.
- What a palaver!
- Not for the first time, he reflected that it was not so much the speeches that strained the nerves as the palaver that went with them.1985, Justin Richards, Option Lock, page 229
- A meeting at which there is much talk; a debate; a moot.
- this country and epoch of parliaments and eloquent palavers1851, Thomas Carlyle, The Life of John Sterling, London: Chapman and Hall, […], →OCLC
- Disagreement.
- I have no palaver with him.
- Synonyms:
- conflict, quarrel, argument, argy-bargy, altercation, contention, barney, bawl out, blue, bobbery
- Talk intended to deceive.
- Synonyms:
- doublespeak, double talk
Verb
palaver (third-person singular simple present palavers, present participle palavering, simple past and past participle palavered)
- To discuss with much talk.
- “Come, come, Captain Bildad; stop palavering,—away!” and with that, Peleg hurried him over the side, and both dropt into the boat.1851, Herman Melville, Moby Dick, chapter 21
- “That,” he rejoined, “is a way we Americans have. We cannot stop to palaver. What would become of our manifest destiny?”1860 April, Atlantic Monthly, volume 5, number 30
- To flatter.
- Dodd never spoke to his officers like a ruffian, nor yet palavered them.1863, Charles Reade, Hard Cash
- Synonyms:
- jolly, puff, brush up to, collogue, flatter, flatterize, glaver, gloze, lay it on thick, make fair weather
palaver meaning in Urdu, Malayalam and Kannada
palaver in Urdu
- بات چیت, گپ شپ, تفصیل بات
palaver in Malayalam
- നേരമ്പോക്ക്, വ്യർത്ഥഭാഷണം, തമാശ
palaver in Kannada
- ಪಿರಕಣೆ ಮತ್ತು ನಸನಸೆ, ಗೊಡ್ಡು ಹರಟೆ, ಮುಖಸ್ತುತಿ ಮಾಡು, ಪುಸಲಾಯಿಸು, ಗಿಲೀಟು ಮಾಡಿ ಬೇಕಾದ್ದನ್ನು ಪಡೆ, ಗಿಲೀಟು ಮಾಡಿ ಬೇಕಾದ್ದನ್ನು ಕಸಿದುಕೊ
Examples of palaver in a sentence
- What they wanted was to put forth their might without any more palaver; to do something, or for some one; to go out somewhere and smash something, on the spot—why not?—that very night.1886, Henry James, The Princess Casamassima, London: Macmillan and Co.:
- Knowing full well the right time and the wrong time for a palaver of regret and disavowal, this battalion struggled in the desperation of despair.1899, Stephen Crane, Active Service:
- Some of the palavers could take half a day.1979, V. S. Naipaul, A Bend in the River:
- What's the good of going through all this palaver of giving very small sums to very obscure charities?1988, Lord Grimond, House of Lords vol 492 col 695
Synonyms of palaver
30 more synonymsFewer synonyms
Forms of palaver
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | palavers |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | palavers |
| present participle | palavering |
| past participle | palavered |
| past | palavered |
Origin of palaver
Originally nautical slang, from Portuguese palavra (“word”), from Late Latin parabola (“parable, speech”). The term's use (especially in Africa) mimics the evolution of the word moot. As such, for sense development, see moot. Doublet of parable, parole, and parabola.
Words formed from palaver
Phrases with palaver
Words that rhyme with palaver
Questions about palaver
- What does palaver mean?
- Palaver means a village council meeting.
- What is palaver in Urdu?
- Palaver in Urdu is بات چیت, گپ شپ, تفصیل بات. See Palaver meaning in Urdu.
- How do you use palaver in a sentence?
- What they wanted was to put forth their might without any more palaver; to do something, or for some one; to go out somewhere and smash something, on the spot—why not?—that very night.
- What part of speech is palaver?
- Palaver can be a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce palaver?
- Palaver is pronounced /pəˈlɑː.və(ɹ)/ (UK).
- What is the plural of palaver?
- The plural of palaver is palavers.
Words near palaver in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: palaver (page history and authors); palaver (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); palaver (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); palaver (Kannada Wiktionary) (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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-au-palaver.ogg.
Cite this entry: “palaver.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/palaver. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.