tattle

1. 1

   To chatter; to gossip.intransitive

   • He were an excellent man that were made iuſt in the mid-way between him and Benedick, the one is too like an image and ſaies nothing, and the other too like my ladies eldeſt ſonne, euermore tatling.
   • Nor can any Man be either wiſe or happy till he hath arrived to that greatneſs of Mind, that no more conſiders the tatling of the multitude than the whiſtling of the Wind.
2. 2

   Often said of children: to report incriminating information about another person, or a person's wrongdoing in an annoying fashion, usually to a person in a position of authority over the accused person; to tell on somebody.CanadaUSderogatory

   • I trapped the girls inside their tent / Someone tattled on me / Put a frog in the bathroom vent / Someone tattled on me / Gave my dinner to a bear / Put a snake in Auntie's chair / And a tick in Gramp's rootbeer / Someone tattled on me
   • Vera is a kindergarten student who loves to be the center of adult attention. She has a quick temper and frequently talks out in class. She also frequently "tattles" on other students.
3. 3

   To speak like a baby or young child; to babble, to prattle; to speak haltingly; to stutter.intransitiveobsolete

   • But who can give to his leasing a conclusion, and pronounce it without tatelying, like as it were written tofore him, and that he can so blind the people that his leasing shall better be believed than the truth: that is the man.

1. 1

   A tattletale.countable

   • We agree on almost nothing, everything is a battle / Every secret from him is kept, his rep is being a tattle
2. 2

   Often said of children: a piece of incriminating information or an account of wrongdoing that is said about another person.CanadaUScountable

   • Have a special small bucket called the tattle bucket. Make name cards for each child. […] When children have a tattle, instead of disrupting the class, they get their name card and put it in the tattle bucket. Look in the bucket at varying
3. 3

   Idle talk; gossip; (countable) an instance of such talk or gossip.uncountable

   • Prattles and Tattles, / O'er Bottles, / Shall ſtill cheriſh my Fancy, / Better, and ſweeter, / And greater, / Than dull Tea with Nancy.
   • But, as ill tongues are never wanting to disturb the repose of honest families, there was such a tattle about my wife going to dress the corregidor's victuals, make his bed, and the like, that all the town rang of it.

syn. informant · gossiper · chatter · clatfart · goss · gossip · gossipry · labrish · scuttlebutt · skeet · tale · tattle