natter
UK /ˈnætə/ · US /ˈnætɚ/ verb, noun
Forms natters nattering nattered
- verb (colloquial) To talk casually; to discuss unimportant matters. “What are you guys nattering about? You're clearly not following the meeting!”
- verb (Scotland) To nag.
- noun (colloquial) Mindless and irrelevant chatter.
Synonyms
chew the fat shoot the breeze chat confabulate confab chitchat chit-chat chatter chaffer gossip jaw claver visit
Etymology
From a Northern England dialectal variant of gnatter (also knatter) ("to chatter, grumble; nibble away at"), ultimately of imitative origin. Cognate with German Low German gnattern (“to mumble, grumble, be grouchy”).
Webster’s 1913
Etymology [Cf. Icel. knetta to grumble.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “natter”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details