Verb They prattled on into the night, discussing school, music, and friends. spent an hour on the phone prattling on about nothing in particular Noun parents often claim to understand the prattle of their infant offspring
Recent Examples on the Web
Verb
Lots of people can prattle on about football on TV, but the extreme upper echelon — the polished storytellers entrusted by the networks to call those premier national games — is wafer thin. Sam Farmer, Los Angeles Times, 9 Sep. 2022 Likewise, cars might rattle or prattle as your speed got faster. Lance Eliot, Forbes, 13 Sep. 2021 As always, those who prattle on about individual freedoms slip quite easily into authoritarianism when defied. Kevin Baker, Harper's Magazine, 23 June 2020 While some buffoon is prattling at length, its lips moving weirdly on a low-polygon face, this is usually the moment that your feet hurt or that your headset's face cushion itches. Sam Machkovech, Ars Technica, 23 Mar. 2020 David prattled about the weather and asked if Harry had seen anything good on TV.cincinnati.com, 14 Jan. 2020 My aunt would prattle on about her kindergarten students, my uncles about their work as firefighters and linesmen.BostonGlobe.com, 21 Nov. 2019 Someone is eating with his or her child or family, just having a quiet dinner, and shouting at them, screaming, demanding and prattling on about all these points.Fox News, 26 July 2018 Middle Sister prattled on about how an atom having six principal quantum numbers can yield several emission lines, or some such. Chicago Tribune, chicagotribune.com, 2 June 2018
Noun
The British playwright David Hare, who adapted a Maigret book for the stage, insists that Simenon—being Belgian-born and so an outsider—disdained the usual French prattle about gastronomy, and therefore cared little for the subject. Adam Gopnik, The New Yorker, 12 Sep. 2022 His memoir is a litany of petty fights, a constant takedown of enemies and a cascade of self-aggrandizing prattle. Elizabeth Spiers, Washington Post, 26 Aug. 2022 The Activision-Blizzard purchase, along with the now constant prattle about the metaverse, only increases the value of smaller studios, who could turn out to be the next Activison. Will Bedingfield, Wired, 25 Feb. 2022 Some of the crew pass blunts and prattle on the balcony.New York Times, 23 Sep. 2021 The story begins with gentle comedy: the narrator, a writer, keeps being disturbed in his study by the prattle of his five-year-old daughter, Mini. Suketu Mehta, Time, 17 Sep. 2021 Over the past several years, Carlson Stroud’s videos devolved from benign prattle about energy, God, and angels to drunken rants, dark threats, and apparent mistreatment of members. Virginia Pelley, Marie Claire, 7 Sep. 2021 These questions — and the obsessive attention to mundane details like Mr. Kim’s wristwatch — may seem like the idle prattle of celebrity gossip.New York Times, 29 June 2021 No one has ever listened to me prattle on for this long before. The Washington Post, AL.com, 5 Feb. 2018 See More
Word History
Etymology
Verb
Low German pratelen; akin to Middle Dutch praten to prate