Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • intransitive verb To talk nonsensically.
  • noun Nonsensical talk.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun Nonsense; foolish talk.
  • noun A person who talks nonsense.
  • To talk nonsense.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • verb To talk foolishly, or nonsensically, or concerning matters of no consequence.
  • noun Voluble, foolish, or nonsensical talk; -- often in the pl.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb pejorative to talk rapidly without making much sense
  • noun pejorative nonsensical or foolish talk

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun foolish gibberish
  • verb to talk foolishly

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Old Norse bladhra; see bhlē- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Old Norse blaðra. To check: Latin blaterāre, present active infinitive of blaterō; onomatopoeia from the sound uttered by a camel.

Support

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Examples

  • We have ten year olds able to bring forth a coherent idea these days as opposed to the constant blather from the GOP victor

    GOP seeks to counter ABC programming 2009

  • It certainly will stop all that sanctimonious, self-righteous, holier-than-thou blather from the neo-con "christian" right-wing bible thumpers!

    Bennett: Sanford needs to stop 'embarrassing himself' 2009

  • I really don't give a toss if CNN prints this or not; the moderation of these comments isn't nearly as strict as some of you seem to think it is anyway – they print what best advances the conversation at hand, even if it is unfounded blather from the masses, so just take off your tinfoil hats and get on with your lives, please.

    Obama, Medvedev reach 'substantial' deal on Afghanistan 2009

  • It certainly will stop all that santctimonius, self-righteous, holier than thou blather from the neo-con "christians"!

    Sanford ally: Governor remains 'defiant' 2009

  • That part of the great state of Iowa which has elected Steve "dumber than a stump" King to the House of Representatives will no doubt wet themselves to see the Sarah "the nutjob" Palin blather on despite fact that the truth seldom passes her lips.

    Palin heading to Iowa 2009

  • When the Forty heard this, they all rose and cried out, saying, What manner of blather is this, O harlot?

    The Book of The Thousand Nights And A Night 2006

  • Incompetence, they need to go, it’s the governments fault, the the State of Louisiana’s fault, the mayor of New Orleans didn’t do his job, they were warned and on and on with the blather is all you hear.

    Think Progress » CNN filed a lawsuit against federal agencies 2005

  • Just seemed like your typical long winded blather, which is usual for you.

    Think Progress » ThinkFast AM: June 5, 2006 2006

  • To listen to them blather, that is exactly what happened.

    LaRouche's Latest 2010

  • (Although perhaps I shouldn't trivialize it quite so much by calling it "blather"; it's precisely this NYT-style blather that helped get us in the current "complicated" mess in Iraq.)

    Narrative Strategies 2009

Comments

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  • In Scotland I think the variant blether is more commonly used.

    March 20, 2007

  • Blathering Wordiers.

    July 15, 2009

  • Why, thank you!

    July 15, 2009