prate

English

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -eɪt

Etymology

From Middle English praten; related to Dutch praten (“to talk, chat”), Low German praten, Danish prate, Swedish prata (“to talk, prate”), Faroese práta (“to talk, gossip”), Icelandic prata; all ultimately from Proto-Germanic *prattuz (“idle or boastful talk, deceit”), from Proto-Indo-European *brodno- (“to wander, rove”). Cognate with Polish bredzić (“to rave, jabber”), Latvian bradāt (“to talk nonsense”).

Noun

prate (plural prates)

1. Talk to little purpose; trifling talk; unmeaning loquacity.

Translations

talk to little purpose

• Russian: болтовня (ru) f (boltovnjá), пустословие (ru) n (pustoslóvije), трёп (ru) m (trjóp)

Derived terms

• prater
• pratingly
• prattle
• prattler

Verb

prate (third-person singular simple present prates, present participle prating, simple past and past participle prated)

1. To talk much and to little purpose; to chatter; to be loquacious; to speak foolishly; to babble.
   • Dryden

     What nonsense would the fool, thy master, prate, / When thou, his knave, canst talk at such a rate!

Synonyms

• ( speak (about unimportant matters) ): blabber, chatter, clack, gabble, gibber, maunder, palaver, piffle, prattle, twaddle

Translations

to talk much, to chatter

• Dutch: babbelen (nl)
• French: bavarder (fr)
• Russian: болтать (ru) (boltatʹ)

• Serbo-Croatian: brbljati, naklapati, lupetati

References

• (etymology) prate, in Compact Oxford English Dictionary.
• (etymolohy) prate, in The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language.

Anagrams

• apert, apter, pater, petra, Petra, preta, repat, taper, trape

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Dutch

Pronunciation

• Audio

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Verb

prate

1. singular present subjunctive of praten

Anagrams

• pater