Meaning

3 senses

  1. (intransitive)To chatter; to gossip.

    klatschen, tratschen

    болта́тьboltátʹ, трепа́тьсяtrepátʹsja

  2. (Canada, US, derogatory, intransitive)Often said of children: to report incriminating information about another person, or a person's wrongdoing in an annoying fashion, usually to a person in a position of authority over the accused person; to tell on somebody.

    petzen

    я́бедничатьjábedničatʹ

  3. (intransitive, obsolete)To speak like a baby or young child; to babble, to prattle; to speak haltingly; to stutter.

More definitions
  • divulge confidential information or secrets
  • speak (about unimportant matters) rapidly and incessantly

Examples

5 sentences

  1. She tattled on me to her teacher.

    ruОна наябедничала на меня своей учительнице. — odexed

    Jesse · Tatoeba · CC BY 2.0 FR · C2Open on TatoebaReport a problem

  2. I've got no respect for finks, snitches, or tattle-tales.

    58mph · Tatoeba · CC BY 2.0 FR · C2Open on TatoebaReport a problem

  3. Nobody likes a tattle-tale.

    casaniere · Tatoeba · CC BY 2.0 FR · C2Open on TatoebaReport a problem

  4. What little girl didn't tattle to her mother about the naughty things the boys were doing?

    Cangarejo · Tatoeba · CC0 · C2Open on TatoebaReport a problem

  5. Eve swore Minnie to secrecy in hopes that she wouldn't tattle about what they'd done.

    casaniere · Tatoeba · CC BY 2.0 FR · C2Open on TatoebaReport a problem

Translations

5 languages
Русский
By meaning 2
to chatter — see also chatter, gossip:
to report incriminating information or wrongdoing:
Deutsch
By meaning 2
to chatter — see also chatter, gossip:
to report incriminating information or wrongdoing:

Origin

From Middle Dutch tatelen, tateren (“to babble, chatter”) (modern Dutch tatelen, tateren (

From Middle Dutch tatelen, tateren (“to babble, chatter”) (modern Dutch tatelen, tateren (“to talk, chatter”)), originally imitative. The word is cognate with Saterland Frisian tätelje (“to talk nonsense, babble”), Middle Low German tāteren, tadderen (“to babble, chatter”) (whence modern German Low German tatern (“to chatter”)), Low German tateln, täteln (“to cackle, gabble”). Compare also Middle English dadel, dadull (“tattling, gossip”), and its alteration twaddle.

Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · source

Forms

tattles, tattling, tattled, tattled
Base formtattle · to tattle
3rd person singulartattles
Present participletattling
Past simpletattled
Past participletattled

regular · Lesson

Present simpleLesson

I, you, we, theytattle
he, she, ittattles

Past simpleLesson

all personstattled

Present perfectLesson

I, you, we, theyhave tattled
he, she, ithas tattled

Future simple (will)Lesson

all personswill tattle

Synonyms

21 synonyms
to chatter:prattle
Close in meaning

Word family

1 related words
Relatedtattler

Lessons for this word

3 lessons

See also

neighbours in the dictionary
tatamitatetatterB2tattooB2tauntB2
tattle — meaning, examples, forms, synonyms | Krumeto