Definitions

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

  • intransitive verb To chat; converse.
  • intransitive verb To offer unwanted or meddlesome advice, such as that given by the spectator of a card game.

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

  • verb To chat; to gossip; to make small talk or idle chatter.
  • verb To give unsolicited or unwanted advice or make unhelpful or idle comments, especially to someone playing a game.

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

  • verb make unwanted and intrusive comments

Etymologies

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

[Yiddish kibitsen, from German kiebitzen, from Rotwelsch (German underground argot) kibitschen, to search (a prisoner), inspect, of unknown origin.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Yiddish קיבעצן (kibitsn), from Hebrew קבץ, influenced by German kiebitzen.

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Examples

Comments

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  • I like the idea that senseless chatter is like the twitter of little birds... to human ears! Of course, to bird ears it's information-rich: 'back off; danger coming; mate with me'.

    May 8, 2007