chitter
/ˈtʃɪtə/ verb
Forms chitters chittering chittered
- verb To make a series of high-pitched sounds; to twitter, chirp or chatter. “It was a beautifully sunny day and beetles could be heard chittering loudly in the rose garden by the side of the path made out of antique bricks.”
- verb (obsolete, Scotland) To shiver or chatter with cold.
Synonyms
Etymology
From Middle English chiteren, chitren, cheteren. Ultimately onomatopoeic; compare didder and teeter as well as German zittern.
Webster’s 1913
- verb To chirp in a tremulous manner, as a bird. [Obs.] Chaucer.
- verb To shiver or chatter with cold. [Scot.] Burns.
Etymology [Cf. Chatter.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “chitter”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details