| English Dictionary |
CHAT (chatted, chatting)
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
| IPA (US): |  |
, chatting Dictionary entry overview: What does chat mean?
• CHAT (noun)
The noun CHAT has 3 senses:
1. an informal conversation
2. birds having a chattering call
3. songbirds having a chattering call
Familiarity information: CHAT used as a noun is uncommon.
• CHAT (verb)
The verb CHAT has 1 sense:
1. talk socially without exchanging too much information
Familiarity information: CHAT used as a verb is very rare.
Dictionary entry details
Sense 1
Meaning:
An informal conversation
Classified under:
Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents
Synonyms:
chat; confab; confabulation; schmoose; schmooze
Hypernyms ("chat" is a kind of...):
conversation (the use of speech for informal exchange of views or ideas or information etc.)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "chat"):
causerie; chin-wag; chin-wagging; chin wag; chin wagging; chit-chat; chit chat; chitchat; gab; gabfest; gossip; small talk; tittle-tattle (light informal conversation for social occasions)
Derivation:
chat (talk socially without exchanging too much information)
chatty (prone to friendly informal communication)
Sense 2
Meaning:
Birds having a chattering call
Classified under:
Nouns denoting animals
Synonyms:
chat; New World chat
Hypernyms ("chat" is a kind of...):
New World warbler; wood warbler (small bright-colored American songbird with a weak unmusical song)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "chat"):
Icteria virens; yellow-breasted chat (American warbler noted for imitating songs of other birds)
Holonyms ("chat" is a member of...):
genus Icteria; Icteria (New World chats)
Sense 3
Meaning:
Songbirds having a chattering call
Classified under:
Nouns denoting animals
Synonyms:
chat; Old World chat
Hypernyms ("chat" is a kind of...):
thrush (songbirds characteristically having brownish upper plumage with a spotted breast)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "chat"):
Saxicola torquata; stonechat (common European chat with black plumage and a reddish-brown breast)
Saxicola rubetra; whinchat (brown-and-buff European songbird of grassy meadows)
Holonyms ("chat" is a member of...):
genus Saxicola; Saxicola (Old World chats)
| Conjugation: |
... he / she / it chats Past simple: chatted
Past participle: chatted
-ing form: chatting
Sense 1
Meaning:
Talk socially without exchanging too much information
Classified under:
Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing
Synonyms:
chaffer; chat; chatter; chew the fat; chit-chat; chitchat; claver; confab; confabulate; gossip; jaw; natter; shoot the breeze; visit
Context example:
the men were sitting in the cafe and shooting the breeze
Hypernyms (to "chat" is one way to...):
converse; discourse (carry on a conversation)
Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "chat"):
jawbone; schmoose; schmooze; shmoose; shmooze (talk idly or casually and in a friendly way)
Sentence frame:
Somebody ----s
Sentence examples:
Sam and Sue chat
Sam wants to chat with Sue
Derivation:
chat (an informal conversation)
Context examples
But he sat as on the previous night, and chatted whilst I ate.
(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)
Such a thought would never enter either Sir John or Lady Middleton's head; and therefore very little leisure was ever given for a general chat, and none at all for particular discourse.
(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)
We had a long chat by the fire before we went to bed.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
They laughed and chatted all the way home, and little Baptiste, up behind, thought that monsieur and madamoiselle were in charming spirits.
(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)
Johnson was telling me about her in a short chat I had with him during yesterday’s second dog-watch.
(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)
Sherlock Holmes pushed him down into the easy-chair and, sitting beside him, patted his hand and chatted with him in the easy, soothing tones which he knew so well how to employ.
(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
They were all in the best of spirits, and laughed and chatted together.
(The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, by L. Frank Baum)
Tell an adult if any communication (chat, text, e-mail message) makes you feel threatened or uncomfortable.
(Internet Safety, NIH)
Save for this one excursion, he spent his days in long and often solitary walks, or in chatting with a number of village gossips whose acquaintance he had cultivated.
(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
She was never, as I think I have said, ostentatiously affectionate, but she was heard by the coachman chatting with the Colonel in a friendly fashion.
(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
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