a1603 T. Cartwright Confut. Rhemists New Test. (1618) Pref. sig. B3 Which had been liker vnto the prating, pratling, and parating of birds.

1647 J. Trapp Comm. Epist. & Rev. (1 Cor. xiv. 15) It is not praying but parotting. I have read of a Parot in Rome, that could..say over the whole Creed.

1840 T. De Quincey Style: No. III in Blackwood's Edinb. Mag. Oct. 517/1 Passages of great musical effect..vulgarized by too perpetual a parroting.

1869 Harper's Mag. Mar. 490/1 Now don't give me any vague commonplace answer—I hate cant and parroting of any kind.

1907 F. Niecks Programme Mus. v. i. 350 Where there is mere aimless parroting of language regardless of meaning, the outcome is of course lamentable.

1971 Daily Tel. 1 Nov. 5/7 Rote learning—learning something by constant repetition or ‘parroting’—free recall and other memory tests were included.

2003 Birmingham Post (Nexis) 9 May 27 We need greater insights than simply a parroting of the claim that the UK has one of the lowest corporate tax rates in Europe.

1648 Mercurius Psitacus: No. 2 (title) Mercurius Psitacus: or the parroting mercury.

1859 K. G. von Raumer German Univ. 75 This directed us the more to the noble, free spirit of all three; who cared not at all for a troop of parroting and aping scholars.

1926 K. C. M. Sills in L. C. Hatch Hist. Bowdoin Coll. (1927) vii. 220 The students in their report have asked for men who are not ‘parroting pedagogues’ or ‘learned pundits’.

1985 Times 18 Nov. 4/4 (headline) ‘Parroting’ critics are attacked by King.

1991 Guardian 12 Mar. 25/5 We are at our most effective if we recognise that the skills we are developing must be thoughtful and not mere mechanical parroting responses.