Definition of "talk"

talk¹

/tɔːk/

verb
third-person singular simple present talks, present participle talking, simple past and past participle talked
1. (intransitive) To communicate, usually by means of speech.
  Quotations
  I will buy with you, sell with you, talk with you, walk with you, and so following, but I will not eat with you.
  c. 1596–1598 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act I, scene iii], page 166
  Then he commenced to talk, really talk. and inside of two flaps of a herring's fin he had me mesmerized, like Eben Holt's boy at the town hall show. He talked about the ills of humanity, and the glories of health and Nature and service and land knows what all. […] It was a chance he was offering me, a wonderful, eighteen carat, solid gold chance.
  1913, Joseph C. Lincoln, chapter 4, in Mr. Pratt's Patients, page 99
  Mr. Campion appeared suitably impressed and she warmed to him. He was very easy to talk to with those long clown lines in his pale face, a natural goon, born rather too early she suspected.
  1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 5, in The China Governess‎
  Let’s go to my office and talk. ― I like to talk with you, Ms. Weaver. Audio (US)(file)
  2016, VOA Learning English (public domain)
2. (transitive, informal) To discuss; to talk about.
3. (transitive) To speak (a certain language).
4. (transitive, informal, chiefly used in progressive tenses) Used to emphasise the importance, size, complexity etc. of the thing mentioned.
5. (intransitive, slang) To confess, especially implicating others.
6. (intransitive) To criticize someone for something of which one is guilty oneself.
7. (intransitive) To gossip; to create scandal.
8. (informal, chiefly used in progressive tenses) To influence someone to express something, especially a particular stance or viewpoint or in a particular manner.
  Quotations
  "So, are you going to give up all this good living and easy money and come fly for the Russians?""Hello no. I told you that yesterday.""That was your wallet talking. The shooting has started. Now I appeal to your patriotism, your manhood, your sense of duty."
  2013, Stephen Coonts, Fortunes of War

talk²

/tɔːk/

noun
countable and uncountable, plural talks
1. A conversation or discussion; usually serious, but informal.
  Quotations
  All this was extraordinarily distasteful to Churchill. […] Never before had he felt such repulsion when the vicar displayed his characteristic bluntness or coarseness of speech. In the present connection—or rather as a transition from the subject that started their conversation—such talk had been distressingly out of place.
  1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter XXIV, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, pages 198–199
2. A lecture.
3. (uncountable) Gossip; rumour.
4. (preceded by the; often qualified by a following of) A major topic of social discussion.
5. (preceded by the) A customary conversation by parent(s) or guardian(s) with their (often teenaged) child about a reality of life; in particular:
  1. A customary conversation in which parent(s) explain sexual intercourse to their child.
  2. (US) A customary conversation in which the parent(s) of a black child explain the racism and violence they may face, especially when interacting with police, and strategies to manage it.
    Quotations
    Later, I made sure to have the talk with my son about being a black boy, […]
    2012, Crystal McCrary, Inspiration: Profiles of Black Women Changing Our World
    The TalkAll the black parents I have ever spoken to have had “the talk” with their sons and daughters. “The talk” is a conversation about how to behave and not to behave with police.
    2016, Jim Wallis, America's Original Sin: Racism, White Privilege, and the Bridge
    Now, I was a black man in the South, and my folks had had “the talk” with me. No, not the one about the birds and bees. This one is about the black man and the police.
    2016, Stuart Scott, Larry Platt, Every Day I Fight, page 36
6. (uncountable, not preceded by an article) Empty boasting, promises or claims.
7. (usually in the plural) Meeting to discuss a particular matter.

Definition of "talk"

talk1

verb

Quotations

Quotations

talk2

noun

Quotations

Quotations

talk¹

talk²