Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- intransitive verb To talk idly and at length; chatter.
from The Century Dictionary.
- To talk idly or boastfully; be loquacious; chatter; babble.
- To utter foolishly; chatter.
- noun Idle or childish talk; prattle; unmeaning loquacity; twaddle.
- noun Synonyms See
prattle .
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- transitive verb To utter foolishly; to speak without reason or purpose; to chatter, or babble.
- intransitive verb To talk much and to little purpose; to be loquacious; to speak foolishly; to babble.
- noun Talk to little purpose; trifling talk; unmeaning loquacity.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun Talk to little purpose;
trifling talk; unmeaningloquacity . - verb To
talk much and to little purpose; tochatter ; to beloquacious ; to speakfoolishly ; tobabble .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- verb speak (about unimportant matters) rapidly and incessantly
- noun idle or foolish and irrelevant talk
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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Those who prate about freedom while kidnapping innocent people off the streets and locking them up in concentrationschlagers don't deserve freedom themselves!
Rove Tweets Hunting 2009
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Those who prate about freedom while kidnapping innocent people off the streets and locking them up in concentrationschlagers don't deserve freedom themselves!
Rove Tweets Hunting 2009
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The same pople who used to prate about "moral clarity" now argue that we should overlook criminality.
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But rather than actually examining the things they know in life, they try to prate wise about things they know little of.
Archive 2010-01-01 Steven Barnes 2010
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But rather than actually examining the things they know in life, they try to prate wise about things they know little of.
Non-Hollywood is Calling... Steven Barnes 2010
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Are you concerned about that aspect combined with a lot of December prate people?
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And those who prate of spiritual warfare and demons are not just "people of faith" but theocratic bullies.
Dozens Of Call Center Workers Walk Off Job In Protest Rather Than Read McCain Script Attacking Obama 2009
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In other words, you prate about ethics but have no real experience of your own nature, Human Nature.
On Thursday, the Legg report will be published along with... 2009
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They prate on as if they alone know electromagnetism and the rest of us are blind and ignorant to it.
A Prototype Detector for Dark Matter in the Milky Way | Universe Today 2009
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In other words, you prate about ethics but have no real experience of your own nature, Human Nature.
On Thursday, the Legg report will be published along with... 2009
bilby commented on the word prate
"This is what the Republican Party has done to us this year: It has placed within reach of the Oval Office a woman who is a religious fanatic and a proud, boastful ignoramus. Those who despise science and learning are not anti-elitist. They are morally and intellectually slothful people who are secretly envious of the educated and the cultured. And those who prate of spiritual warfare and demons are not just 'people of faith' but theocratic bullies. On Nov. 4, anyone who cares for the Constitution has a clear duty to repudiate this wickedness and stupidity."
- Christopher Hitchens, 'Sarah Palin's War on Science', slate.com, 27 Oct 2008.
October 30, 2008
carolinacc commented on the word prate
for he that prates his secrets,
his heart stands on the outside
The Revenger's Tragedy
I wonder how that links to the quote above...
March 23, 2009
bilby commented on the word prate
"There's no man in the world
More bound to's mother; yet here he lets me prate
Like one i' the stocks."
- William Shakespeare, 'The Tragedy of Coriolanus'.
August 29, 2009