prattle
/ˈpɹætəl/
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 2.18 in modern English
9
Scrabble Score
7
Letters
2
Syllables
6
Unique Chars
Meaning
verb
To speak incessantly and in an inconsequential or childish manner; to babble.
Example Sentences
- "And as E. Rushmore Coglan prattled of this little planet I thought with glee of a great almost-cosmopolite who wrote for the whole world and dedicated himself to Bombay."
- "I looked across at Anna, and I noticed that her eyes had grown strangely blank, without expression. I felt instinctively that the subject brought up by Victor was one she would not have chosen. Victor, insensitive to this, went prattling on."
- "Mere prattle without practice is all his soldiership."
- "[...] if you fatigue people by haying them always present, if you encourage or repeat their prattle and their sports; [...]"
Etymology
From prate + -le (early modern English frequentative suffix). Compare Dutch pruttelen and Dutch preutelen (“to mutter”).