Word.ws English Dictionary

talk like an apothecary

talk like an apothecary verb: to prattle.

Verb

talk like an apothecary (third-person singular simple present talks like an apothecary, present participle talking like an apothecary, simple past and past participle talked like an apothecary)

  1. (archaic, idiomatic, intransitive, slang) To prattle.
    • As to Clement of Alexandria, I shall pass him by, as he knew nothing about the matter. He talks like an apothecary on the subject; and when did ever an apothecary talk to any purpose?1824, Naso., Sneezing, in The New Monthly Magazine, volume X, page 152
    • "And you have so little of the former left," said the old woman, as she presented him with a plate of the aliment and a glass of the menstruum, "that without we have a fresh supply, I foresee that you will be reduced to live upon your own medicines."
      "You do not talk like an apothecary," said...July, 1807, Omar and Fatima; or, the Apothecary of Ispahan, published in the Literary Magazine and American Register, volume VIII, number 46, page 6

Forms of talk like an apothecary

third-person singular presenttalks like an apothecary
present participletalking like an apothecary
past participletalked like an apothecary
pasttalked like an apothecary

Questions about talk like an apothecary

What does talk like an apothecary mean?
Talk like an apothecary means to prattle.
What part of speech is talk like an apothecary?
Talk like an apothecary is a verb.
What is the past tense of talk like an apothecary?
The past tense of talk like an apothecary is talked like an apothecary.

Words near talk like an apothecary in the dictionary

  1. talk jock
  2. talk jockey
  3. talk jockeys
  4. talk jocks
  5. talk like a book
  6. talk like an apothecary
  7. talk nasty
  8. talk of the devil
  9. talk of the town
  10. talk one's way out of
  11. talk out

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: talk like an apothecary (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-talk like an apothecary.ogg.

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