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  1. witter love

Definitions

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

  1. Knowing; certain; sure.
  2. To make sure; inform; declare (that).

Wiktionary

  1. adj. knowing, certain, sure, wis.
  2. v. intransitive, intransitive to make sure, inform, or declare.
  3. v. intransitive to speak at length on a trivial subject.

Etymologies

  1. From Middle English witteren, witeren, of North Germanic origin, from Old Norse vitra ("to make wise, make sure"), from Proto-Germanic *witrōnan (“to make wise”), from Proto-Indo-European *weyd- (“to know”). Cognate with Icelandic vitra ("to make wise, make certain"), Icelandic vitur ("wise"). More at wit, wis. (Wiktionary)

Examples

  • “In point of fact, he gets paid (handsomely) to witter on in a quintessentially superficial and shallow way about his thoughts on pork chops, the NBA, teenage sex parties, and free trade.”

    Matthew Yglesias » Endgame

  • “Being a professor of management, Lee is duty-bound to witter on about governance structures and such, which he does at length, but his main point is simple, indeed trivial: it's prudent to treat people the way Diab was treated.”

    Archive 2009-08-01

  • “Meanwhile the Usual Suspects ™ witter on about that phantasmal, oxymoronic contruction, "liberal fascism.”

    Archive 2009-02-01

  • “Clearly, I could witter on about this play for screens and screens.”

    Measure For Measure

  • “Preferably they'll be human (Meryl Streep and Julie Walters form a conga-line of shoulders to cry on in Mamma Mia!) but if not, you can always witter into a tape recorder in lieu of a voiceover.”

    The Guardian: Film-inspired holidays: The Journey of self-discovery

  • “A decade or so later, when I had somehow managed to con a number of apparently intelligent people into paying me good money to witter on about nothing in particular, I was sent to Monaco to talk to Ed Moses.”

    The Guardian: The secret to being a sporting great is not really trying

  • “The US has a black president and all we want to do is witter over the fashion jargon for the exact shade of his wife's frock.”

    The Guardian: Please give generously, but not to Poverty TV

  • “I could witter on about stone age barbarians who if they want to live under Sharia law etc etc but they have a right to free speech and no matter how offensive should not of been prosecuted.”

    Giving evidence to the Chilcot inquiry, Tony Blair said: “I...

  • “They just sit and the sidelines and witter on, offering inexpert opinions and witless criticisms.”

    On Thursday, the Legg report will be published along with...

  • “One by one the laws are being introduced to enslave us and the opposition just witter on about Damian Green, there is more going on than that; bite the bullet Cameron and start the fight back, there may just be enough time today, there probably won't be come 2010.”

    Archive 2008-12-01

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rhymes (22)

Words with the same terminal sound

  1. Ritter
  2. Sitter
  3. aglitter
  4. bitter
  1. chitter
  2. critter
  3. embitter
  4. emitter
  1. fitter
  2. fritter
  3. gitter
  4. glitter
  1. gritter
  2. hitter
  3. knitter
  4. litter
  1. quitter
  2. ritter
  3. sitter
  4. titter
  1. transmitter
  2. twitter

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Lists

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Comments

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  • whichbe To chatter or babble at undue length. May 13, 2008

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‘witter’ has been looked up 776 times, added to 11 lists, commented on 1 time, and has a Scrabble score of 9.