Word.ws English Dictionary

talking to

talking to is the alternative form of talking-to.

talking to is the present participle and gerund of talk to.

Meaning of talking-to

Noun

talking-to (plural talking-tos or talkings-to)

  1. (colloquial) A scolding or reprimand; a lengthy rebuke.
    • For quotations using this term, see Citations:talking-to.

Meaning of talk to

Verb

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

  1. (idiomatic) To show the beginnings of a romantic interest in; to flirt with over a period of time in hopes of developing a romantic relationship.
    • “Do you have a boyfriend?” — “No, but there’s a guy I’m talking to.”
  2. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see talk, to.

Forms of talking to

pluraltalking tos
pluraltalkings to

Questions about talking to

What is talking to the alternative form of?
Talking to is the alternative form of talking-to.

Words near talking to in the dictionary

  1. talking the hind legs off a donkey
  2. talking the leg off the Lamb of God
  3. talking the talk
  4. talking through
  5. talking through one's hat
  6. talking to
  7. talking to a brick wall
  8. talking to God
  9. talking to oneself
  10. talking to Ralph on the big white telephone
  11. talking to the fist

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: talking to (page history and authors); talking-to (page history and authors); talk to (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.

Last updated:

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