twattle

/ˈtwɒtəl/

twattle verb: to talk in a digressive or long-winded way.

Verb (1)

twattle (third-person singular simple present twattles, present participle twattling, simple past and past participle twattled)

(ambitransitive, archaic) To talk in a digressive or long-winded way.
- After all, she objected, Do not Men run visiting from House to House, for no other purpose but to twattle, spending their time in idle and fruitless discourse?1671, Margaret Cavendish Duchess of Newcastle, Natures Pictures drawn by Fancies Pencil to the Life, page 181
- Tis very well, Mistress, says he, and are you not a fine Gossiping Lady, do you think, to twattle your Husband thus out of his Life and Fortune?1692, Roger L’Estrange, “ (please specify the fable number.) (please specify the name of the fable.)”, in Fables, of Æsop and Other Eminent Mythologists: […], London: […] R[ichard] Sare, […], →OCLC

twattle (countable and uncountable, plural twattles)

(archaic) Chatter; twaddle.
- Continue, if you choose, your twattle against Homœopathy; distort it, misinterpret it, calumniate and deride its author; the unprejudiced legions will soon be able to decide on which side is the truth.1850 May, “Unjust Personalities”, in The American Journal of Homœopathy, volume 5, number 1, page 11
- It concedes too much to you Northern fellows; and all the old man said about magnanimity was mere twattle.1860, Hezekiah Lord Hosmer, Adela, the Octoroon, page 91

twattle (third-person singular simple present twattles, present participle twattling, simple past and past participle twattled)

(archaic, transitive) To cosset; to pet or coddle.
- Never fear her, I warrant you, she that will ask for a weapon is not desperate; get you gone in to her, and twattle her out of the sullens if you can; if not, I'le not long be absent.1675, John Dryden, The Mistaken Husband
- For se waik an' se silly, an' helpless was I, I was always a tumbling down then, While me mother would twattle me gently, and cry Honey Jenny: tak' care o' thysen.1884 October 15, “Song”, in The Hull Quarterly and East Riding Portfolio, volume 1, number 4, page 155

twattle (plural twattles)

(archaic) A dwarf.
- PIGMEO, a pigmey, a kinde of little man like a dwarfe, a dandiprat, a twattle, or an elfe. Some thinke that they be but a kind of spirits ingendred of the corruption of the earth, even as the Scarab is bread of horses doung.1598, John Florio, A Worlde of Wordes, page 486
- She had telt him, indignant, 'I am not ten.' 'No? An uncomely twattle, are ye no?' 'A twattle?' she had said. 'A mimmerkin. A dwarf.'2016, Shirley McKay, 1588: A Calendar of Crime

بچہ بولی, بک بک, بکواس, کچر کچر

The penetrating power of that saying might atone for pages of twattle, and Carlyle has flashes of such tremendous insight as is only given to masters in literature.1876 January, Francis Gerry Fairfield, “An Unconventional View of Herbert Spencer”, in Phrenological Journal, volume 65, number 1:
The lies, twattles, and contrivances about this affair, are innumerable.1970, Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, James Archibald Stuart-Wortley-Mackenzie Wharncliffe (1st Baron), William Moy Thomas, The Letters and...
Thoo twattles on wi ' ť pup ez if ' t wur a bairn.1911, Richard Blakeborough, Wit, Character, Folklore & Customs of the North Riding of Yorkshire, page 484:

Verb
third-person singular present	twattles
present participle	twattling
past participle	twattled
past	twattled
Noun
plural	twattles

Compare tattle, twaddle.

Unknown.

What does twattle mean?: Twattle means to talk in a digressive or long-winded way.
What is twattle in Urdu?: Twattle in Urdu is بچہ بولی, بک بک, بکواس. See Twattle meaning in Urdu.
How do you use twattle in a sentence?: The penetrating power of that saying might atone for pages of twattle, and Carlyle has flashes of such tremendous insight as is only given to masters in literature.
What part of speech is twattle?: Twattle can be a verb or a noun.
How do you pronounce twattle?: Twattle is pronounced /ˈtwɒtəl/.
What is the past tense of twattle?: The past tense of twattle is twattled.

Adapted from Wiktionary: twattle (page history and authors); twattle (Urdu 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.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-twattle.wav.

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