/verb [no object]
1(Of a bird) give a call consisting of repeated light tremulous sounds: sparrows twittered under the eaves (as noun twittering) the swallows were settling to roost with a good deal of twittering...
- It was nice and peaceful up there listening to the birds twittering and the sound of the stream.
- Birds twittered merrily as they fluttered by and squirrels chattered as they raced up and down the limbs gathering nuts.
- It's the first time we've lived anywhere bordering on rural and whereas in town we would get a fair few birds twittering away, here it's like living in an aviary.
Synonyms
chirp, chirrup, cheep, tweet, peep, chitter, chatter, trill, warble, sing
1.1Talk in a light, high-pitched voice: old ladies in the congregation twittered...
- ‘No, that would be you, Prime Minister,’ the high voice of the Prince twittered and circled about the human's ears.
- She twittered and tweeted and seemed to move imperceptibly whilst standing completely still.
1.2Talk rapidly and at length in a trivial way: he twittered on about buying a new workshop [with direct speech]: ‘What a great crowd’, Perry twittered...
- Before long, he began twittering quickly then he stopped and produced a fortune out, handing it Cloud.
- If she seeks to free women from domestic trivia, why twitter on about chintz?
- There's a bit of nudging and jostling while they get comfortable on their roost, but then suddenly the twittering stops as though a conductor drops his baton after the final note, then silence.
Synonyms
prattle, babble, chatter, prate, gabble, jabber, go on, run on, rattle on/away, yap, jibber-jabber, patter, blather, blether, blither, maunder, ramble, drivel
informal yak, yackety-yak, yabber, yatter
British informal witter, rabbit, chunter, natter, waffle
Scottish & Irish informal slabber
Australian/New Zealand informal mag
archaic twaddle, clack, twattle
2Post a message, image, etc. on the social media service Twitter: many active bloggers are twittering more and more these days...
- Even Admiral Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, is now twittering to the troops.
- There's 15,000 16,000, almost 15,000 people who are twittering with us.
- At the same time, the media dodos who are still in self-denial over devolution continue to twitter, irrespective of the evidence.
noun
1A series of short, high-pitched calls or sounds: his words were cut off by a faint electronic twitter...
- Their song is a bubbly, metallic series of beeps and twitters.
- The melodious chirps, chirrups, tweets, twitters and warbling notes from the winged visitors blend well with the incessant hum, buzz and drone of innumerable insects, to produce the effect of being inside a vast forest.
- His is droning electronic pulses, tones, twitters - an ever-escalating loop of frozen machine-age ominousness.
Synonyms
chirp, chirping, chirrup, chirruping, cheep, cheeping, tweet, tweeting, peep, peeping, chitter, chittering, trill, trilling, warble, warbling;
song, cry, call
1.1 [mass noun] Idle or ignorant talk: drawing-room twitter...
- Lizaveta is so victimized in her abused and tortured twitter that she can't gain our sympathy, especially when she acts like she doesn't understand she'd be better off without the crazy old coot.
Synonyms
prattle, chatter, babble, talk, prating, gabble, jabber, blather, blether, rambling
informal yackety-yak, yabbering, yatter
British informal wittering, nattering, chuntering
archaic clack, twattle
Phrases
in (or of) a twitter
Derivatives
twitterer
/ noun ...- Increasingly, however, the leader herself is coming across as one of the country's leading twitterers.
- Sofya is a bit of a twitterer, and the standout among the women is Solovieva, the one who gets the ‘mad scene’ after her husband-to-be is hanged.
- She is anything but a twitterer, though - it is the warmth of the voice that makes it truly heavenly.
twittery
- It's been 22 years since her first hit, but she still wears her hair like an overgrown schoolgirl, and retains a twittery voice that makes her sound like an exceptionally late developer.
- Endowed with a muscular alto that automatically storms to the top of its range on almost every song, she's nothing if not confident, and a lesson to the twittery Kylies of this world.
- We've never seen stuff like it before, and we get terribly excited and twittery about it.
Origin
Late Middle English (as a verb): imitative.
chat from Middle English:
In medieval times chat was formed as a shorter version of chatter, which itself started life as an imitation of the sound made by people chatting away, rather as jabber (Late Middle English) and twitter (Late Middle English) imitated the sound they described. The chattering classes are liberal, well-educated people, often working in the media, who are fond of expressing their views on any and every subject. This name for them has been around since at least the early 1980s. The success of the website called Twitter has led to heated debate among users as to whether what they do should be called to twitter or to tweet (mid 19th century)—yet another word imitating the sound of birds. See also jargon