Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- intransitive verb To talk foolishly; prate.
- noun Foolish, trivial, or idle talk or chatter.
from The Century Dictionary.
- To babble; gabble; prate; especially, to keep up a foolish, prosy chatter.
- noun A twaddler.
- noun Idle, senseless talk; gabble; prosy nonsense.
- noun Perplexity; confusion. Grose, Dict. of Vulgar Tongue.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- verb To talk in a weak and silly manner, like one whose faculties are decayed; to prate; to prattle.
- noun Silly talk; gabble; fustian.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun Empty or silly
idle talk orwriting ;nonsense ,rubbish - noun A
twaddler . - verb To talk or write nonsense; to
prattle .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun pretentious or silly talk or writing
- verb speak (about unimportant matters) rapidly and incessantly
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
Support
Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word twaddle.
Examples
-
The usual uninspired marketing twaddle is neither.
-
More twaddle from the nutcase side of the global warming debate: [G] lobal warming is caused by the widespread sin, immorality, and materialism of our current society.
-
Dixon, of course you find talk of war crimes to be "twaddle", after all, it was you that said that the Serbs did the right thing in massacring Muslims.
On Thursday, the Legg report will be published along with... 2009
-
The left are rife with corruption and their fare share of "twaddle".
John Terry’s sacking as England captain tells us something interesting... 2009
-
I've heard of it before; but when I was a kid it was called "twaddle".
"A woman in an airport bathroom who, I felt, had addressed my daughter Julia with an unforgivable tone of officiousness and disdain..." Ann Althouse 2009
-
She calls a story in Vogue on "new ways" to carry a handbag "twaddle" and goes on to beseech, "Isn't it time they all tried a little bit harder to be on our side ...?"
-
As for what you consider "twaddle", that's the opinion of a paying film fan, whether you like it or not, an opinion that many readers and those who make film do.
Filmstalker: Filmstalker EIFF 2009 Roundup: Episode 15: Running in Traffic 2009
-
In a recent letter to the South Manchester Reporter the author Cath Stanicliffe claimed that she knew instantly that the Christie claim was "twaddle".
-
In a recent letter to the South Manchester Reporter the author Cath Stanicliffe claimed that she knew instantly that the Christie claim was "twaddle".
Archive 2008-02-01 2008
-
In a recent letter to the South Manchester Reporter the author Cath Stanicliffe claimed that she knew instantly that the Christie claim was "twaddle".
Archive 2008-02-03 2008
andrew.simone commented on the word twaddle
This word always sounds dirty to me.
December 13, 2006
whatever1013 commented on the word twaddle
first heard this one on Red Dwarf -- a late 80's-early 90's britcom.
February 4, 2007
arby commented on the word twaddle
andrew.simone, there's a good reason for that - it sounds like twat!
I love this word, both because it means nonsense and because it's one of the few words that rhymes with waddle - it's a waddling twat!
I remember Topps made a series of toys (over 10 years ago now) called Baby Wild Animals - they came with little candy baby bottles, and the seal was named Twaddle. This cracked me up endlessly.
May 4, 2007
arby commented on the word twaddle
Found a great new synonym for this - taradiddle!
September 10, 2007
ambyellen commented on the word twaddle
appears in the iphone game Moxie; a fun word game. It's also frustrating because it exclaims "twaddle!" at you when you enter a word which it doesn't recognize, but that actually is a word!
July 23, 2009
mollusque commented on the word twaddle
They have only two varieties of pizza here — regular and extra cheese. None of this new age southern California olives-and-sun-dried-tomato wannabe pizza twaddle.
--Elizabeth Gilbert, 2006, Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman's Search for Everything across Italy, India and Indonesia, p. 80
August 10, 2009
bilby commented on the word twaddle
I lived in Italy for 4 years and never came across a pizzeria that offered extra cheese. Maybe you could find that option if you haunted tourist dives religiously but, frankly Liz, it's extra cheese which represents 'wannabe pizza twaddle', while olives are quite a traditional ingredient.
August 10, 2009
milosrdenstvi commented on the word twaddle
The example is rather hilarious: "The solemn unction with which he pronounced this twaddle is beyond description."
November 19, 2009
bilby commented on the word twaddle
"I have no right to do so … it is inappropriate to twaddle, toy and tool anyone's (sp) object. " — newmatilda.com
November 19, 2009