| 释义 |
▪ I. chitter, v.|ˈtʃɪtə(r)|
Forms: 4–5 chiter, cheter, 5 chyter, 6 chydder, 6–7 chytter, 6– chitter.
[A parallel form to chatter, expressing a more attenuated action of the same kind: cf. drop, drip, chop, chip, jabber, jibber, etc. Cf. also chit v.2]
1. a. Of birds: To utter a short series of sharp thin sounds, to twitter. Formerly used also in the senses chatter, and chirp. Also transf.
c1386Chaucer Miller's T. 72 Of hir song, it was so lowd and yerne As eny swalwe chitering on a berne. ― Can. Yeom. Prol. & T. 844 They mowe wel chiteren as þat doon Iayes. 1387Trevisa Higden (Rolls) I. 239 in Cath. Angl. 64 note, With mouth than chetereth the stare. 1401Pol. Poems (1859) II. 40 Chyteryng as chowȝes. 1483Caxton Gold. Leg. 315/1 The Swalowes chyteryd and Songe. 1530Palsgr. 484/2, I chytter, as a yonge byrde dothe before she can synge her tune. 1600F. Walker Sp. Mandeville 134 b, A Sparrow, chirping and chyttering to other Sparrowes. 1821Clare Vill. Minstr. I. 91 No music's heard the fields among; Save where the hedge-chats chittering play. 1904M. E. Waller Wood-Carver vii. 309 A chipmunk chittered along the stone wall. 1921C. Orr Kate Curlew i. 13 The rain..chittering in the rusty beech hedges. 1930E. Ferber Cimarron xviii. 277 A linotype machine..chattered and chittered and clanked.
b. trans. (also with out).
1393Gower Conf. II. 328 She..chitereth out in her langage What falshede is in mariage. 1789D. Davidson Seasons 129 (Jam.), They chitter their farewell. 1919Wodehouse Damsel in Distress vii. 95 Little things in the hedgerows chirped and chittered mockery at him.
2. To shiver with cold, to tremble. dial. and Sc.
1526Skelton Magnyf., Se, for God avowe, for cold as I chydder. a1796Burns Cauld blaws the wind, The birds sit chittering in the thorn.
3. To ‘chatter’ as the teeth. Now Sc.
1535Fisher Wks. (1876) 424 The coldnesse of the snow shal make their teeth for to gnashe and chytter in theyr heades. 1728Ramsay Gent. Sheph. v. i, Your teeth they chitter, hair like bristles stan. a1822Sir A. Boswell Skeldon Haughs, Some teeth in angry fit may chitter.
▪ II. chitter, n.|ˈtʃɪtə(r)|
[f. prec.]
1. Twitter.
1869Mrs. Whitney Hitherto xi. 147 The faint chitter of birds.
2. dial. [prob. agent-n. f. chit v.2]
1887Dict. Kentish Dial., Chitter, the wren.
3. Comb., chitter-pouch dial. = chatterbag.
1864E. Capern Devon Provinc., Chitter-Pooch, a gabbler.
▪ III. chitter, chitteril
dial. var. of chitterling. |