chitter
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English[edit]
Etymology 1[edit]
From Middle English chiteren, chitren, cheteren. Ultimately onomatopoeic; compare didder and teeter as well as German zittern.
Verb[edit]
chitter (third-person singular simple present chitters, present participle chittering, simple past and past participle chittered)
- To make a series of high-pitched sounds; to twitter, chirp or chatter.
- It was a beautifully sunny day and beetles could be heard chittering loudly in the rose garden by the side of the path made out of antique bricks.
- (obsolete, Scotland) To shiver or chatter with cold.
- 1786, Robert Burns, A Winter Night:
- Whare wilt thou cower thy chittering wing, / An' close thy e'e?
Derived terms[edit]
Etymology 2[edit]
Noun[edit]
chitter (plural chitters)
- (dialect) Alternative form of chitterling
References[edit]
- “chitter” in the Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, 1974 edition.