Definition of "prate"

prate

/pɹeɪt/

noun
countable and uncountable, plural prates
1. Talk to little purpose; trifling talk; unmeaningful loquacity.
verb
third-person singular simple present prates, present participle prating, simple past and past participle prated
1. (transitive, intransitive) To talk much and to little purpose; to be loquacious; to speak foolishly.
  Quotations
  Thou ſowre and firme-ſet Earth / Heare not my ſteps, which they may walke, for feare / Thy very ſtones prate of my where-about, / And take the preſent horror from the time, / Which now ſutes with it.
  c. 1606 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Macbeth”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act II, scene i], page 136, column 1
  What nonsense would the fool, thy master, prate, / When thou, his knave, canst talk at such a rate!
  1697, Virgil, “Pastorl 3”, in John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […]
  Urania speaks with darken’d brow:⁠‘Thou pratest here where thou art least;⁠This faith has many a purer priest,And many an abler voice than thou: […] ’
  1850, [Alfred, Lord Tennyson], In Memoriam, London: Edward Moxon, […], Canto XXXVII, page 57
  They are not so chic, these kids. They don’t haunt press receptions or opening nights; they don’t pose as street punks in the style of Bruce Springsteen, or prate of rock & Rimbaud.
  1976 June 7, Nik Cohn, “Inside the Tribal Rites of the New Saturday Night”, in New York Magazine‎
  Puffed up with fake jocularity, Bill epitomizes the smiley, buck-passing, back-stabbing, passive-aggressive office dictator who fears and despises his underlings while prating nauseatingly about everybody being one big happy family.
  1999 February 19, Stephen Holden, “'Office Space': One Big Happy Family? No, Not at This Company”, in New York Times‎

Definition of "prate"

prate

noun

verb

Quotations