Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun Idle talk; chatter

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun Much talking; prattle; chatter.

Etymologies

Sorry, no etymologies found.

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word bavardage.

Examples

  • We know that our political sphere is healthy when, first, everyone who wants to be a "participant in government" can in fact have access to it; and second, when the talk that takes place there is viewed not as mere bavardage or spin, but as one of the chief and most valuable expressions of public liberty.

    Archive 2008-09-01 Matthew Guerrieri 2008

  • We know that our political sphere is healthy when, first, everyone who wants to be a "participant in government" can in fact have access to it; and second, when the talk that takes place there is viewed not as mere bavardage or spin, but as one of the chief and most valuable expressions of public liberty.

    The Turn of the Screw (II) Matthew Guerrieri 2008

  • The dame before me is chatting with the bouchère about tout et rien until I clear my throat, at which point she pauses, only to continue her bavardage.

    Words in a French Life Kristin Espinasse 2007

  • Representative assemblies are often taunted by their enemies with being places of mere talk and bavardage.

    Representative Government 2002

  • Carlisle; si vous pouvez supporter tout ce bavardage, cest parce que vous aimez votre fille, qui en est en partie la cause.

    George Selwyn: His Letters and His Life Helen [Editor] Clergue

  • Musset's _Merle Blanc_, and like them we live "de plaisir, d'honneur, de bavardage, de gloire et de chiffons."

    Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science Volume 12, No. 29, August, 1873 Various

  • Though bavardage accounted for much of the general knowledge of every one's affairs, there was an uncanny mystery in the speed at which a particular secret spread.

    Mystic Isles of the South Seas. Frederick O'Brien 1900

  • Adieu, dear Lady Carlisle; si vous pouvez supporter tout ce bavardage, cest parce que vous aimez votre fille, qui en est en partie la cause.

    George Selwyn His Letters and His Life Ed 1899

  • Pardon de ce bavardage et mille amitiés -- avec tous mes compliments pour

    Memoirs of the Life and Correspondence of Henry Reeve, C.B., D.C.L. In Two Volumes. Volume II. John Knox Laughton 1872

  • Representative assemblies are often taunted by their enemies with being places of mere talk and _bavardage_.

    Considerations on Representative Government John Stuart Mill 1839

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.

  • Small talk, chitchat.

    May 12, 2008

  • JM has a small satchel of bavardage that he reaches in to from time to time

    March 8, 2009

  • JM loves a good old bavardage session - wag that chin and shoot that there breeze!!

    September 22, 2010

  • Palaver that’s boredom’s camouflage

    Is chatter - no more than bavardage.

    Enlivened with zest

    Of banter and jest

    It jumps up to jolly persiflage.

    January 17, 2018