Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- v. To talk idly and at length; chatter.
- v. To utter idly or to little purpose.
- n. Empty, foolish, or trivial talk; idle chatter.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- To talk idly or boastfully; be loquacious; chatter; babble.
- To utter foolishly; chatter.
- n. Idle or childish talk; prattle; unmeaning loquacity; twaddle.
- n. Synonyms See prattle.
Wiktionary
- n. Talk to little purpose; trifling talk; unmeaning loquacity.
- v. To talk much and to little purpose; to chatter; to be loquacious; to speak foolishly; to babble.
GNU Webster's 1913
- v. To talk much and to little purpose; to be loquacious; to speak foolishly; to babble.
- v. To utter foolishly; to speak without reason or purpose; to chatter, or babble.
- n. Talk to little purpose; trifling talk; unmeaning loquacity.
WordNet 3.0
- v. speak (about unimportant matters) rapidly and incessantly
- n. idle or foolish and irrelevant talk
Etymologies
- Middle English praten, from Middle Dutch prāten.
Examples
“The same pople who used to prate about "moral clarity" now argue that we should overlook criminality.”
“Those who prate about freedom while kidnapping innocent people off the streets and locking them up in concentrationschlagers don't deserve freedom themselves!”
“But rather than actually examining the things they know in life, they try to prate wise about things they know little of.”
“Are you concerned about that aspect combined with a lot of December prate people?”
“And those who prate of spiritual warfare and demons are not just "people of faith" but theocratic bullies.”
Dozens Of Call Center Workers Walk Off Job In Protest Rather Than Read McCain Script Attacking Obama
“In other words, you prate about ethics but have no real experience of your own nature, Human Nature.”
On Thursday, the Legg report will be published along with...
“They prate on as if they alone know electromagnetism and the rest of us are blind and ignorant to it.”
A Prototype Detector for Dark Matter in the Milky Way | Universe Today
“The more I hear these right wingnuts prate on the more it appears we are little more than a great bio-dysfunction.”
An Astronomical Perspective on Climate Change | Universe Today
“En hvilken som helst journalist kan prate med foreldrene til noen ivrige dataspillere på ungdomsskolen, og vips har de en "kritisk sak" til et stort og kjent fenomen.”
“Every lady of breeding knows: No one has a good time on a prate ship.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘prate’.
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GRE Barrons Wordlist
A complete Barron's Wordlist for GRE preparation. Your online flashcard replacement.
abase, abash, abate, abbreviate, abdicate, aberrant, aberration, abet, abeyance, abhor, abject, abjure and 4084 more...
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High Brow
tremulous, vigorous, unction, coadjutor, dotage, mirth, obtuseness, torpid, talisman, infirm, score, subsistence and 49 more...
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briwref's list
defalcation, macerate, beldam, nescience, ochlocracy, bibelot, estivate, spatulated, introversive, mastoidal, belletristic, objurgation and 108 more...
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Words beginning with P
peripatetic, pearlescent, perfunctory, palliate, permafrost, prosthetic, pliant, pluvious, percussion, procrastinate, progeria, prognathism and 49 more...
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carolinacc's list
jettisoned, yearn, chrestomathy, catachresis, elation, gesundheit, ohne, tertium quid, iota, oscillation, argillous, flagrate and 67 more...
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[Open] Infrequentative
Non-frequentative verbs which also have a frequentative form (which you may add to the list “Frequentative”, if you like)
Examples include bob (bobble), busk (bustle), dab (dabble), ho...hove, stut, wag, dab, dart, spouse, sault, prate, swag, visé, cater, nose and 33 more...
bilby "There's no man in the world
More bound to's mother; yet here he lets me prate
Like one i' the stocks."
- William Shakespeare, 'The Tragedy of Coriolanus'. Aug 29, 2009
carolinacc for he that prates his secrets,
his heart stands on the outside
The Revenger's Tragedy
I wonder how that links to the quote above... Mar 23, 2009
bilby "This is what the Republican Party has done to us this year: It has placed within reach of the Oval Office a woman who is a religious fanatic and a proud, boastful ignoramus. Those who despise science and learning are not anti-elitist. They are morally and intellectually slothful people who are secretly envious of the educated and the cultured. And those who prate of spiritual warfare and demons are not just 'people of faith' but theocratic bullies. On Nov. 4, anyone who cares for the Constitution has a clear duty to repudiate this wickedness and stupidity."
- Christopher Hitchens, 'Sarah Palin's War on Science', slate.com, 27 Oct 2008. Oct 30, 2008