(v. i.) To talk much and idly; to prate; hence, to talk lightly and artlessly, like a child; to utter child's talk.
(v. t.) To utter as prattle; to babble; as, to prattle treason.
(n.) Trifling or childish tattle; empty talk; loquacity on trivial subjects; prate; babble.
Example Sentences:
(1) The talk coming from senior Tories – at least some of whom have the grace to squirm when questioned on this topic – suggesting that it's all terribly complicated, that it was a long time ago and that even SS members were, in some ways, themselves victims, is uncomfortably close to the kind of prattle we used to hear from those we called Holocaust revisionists.
(2) An immensely cerebral man, who trained himself to need only six hours of sleep - believing that a woman should have seven and only a fool eight - Mishcon was not a man given to small talk, nor one who would tolerate prattle for the sake of it.
(3) Comparisons between present-day China and the soulless, dreary totalitarian socialist state immortalised in Orwell's masterpiece are difficult to sustain after seeing clutch after clutch of Chinese teenagers, dressed in the latest quasi-Japanophile fashion, walk down a mobbed Beijing pedestrian shopping arcade nibbling at bouquets of candy floss and prattling on as if the phrase "commodity fetishism" had never crossed their young lips.
(4) The opening prattle this week is all about the seven deadly sins.
(5) I think they're about to escort me from the building for prattling on in an unGuardian manner.
(6) Melancholia itself would have been talking point enough without Von Trier's prattling.
(7) These days depression is the stuff of postprandial dinner-party prattle, but Plath explored the condition with no sense of its being a "condition" that others shared, no established therapeutic vocabulary, and no Prozac.
(8) The South Americans have played 25 games, and are guaranteed to play two more including tomorrow's match • Three of Diego Forlán's four goals in World Cup finals history have come from outside the box 7:10pm: As ITV's panel prattling on about how surprising it is to see harmony in the Dutch camp - exagerrating the divisions of the past and reinforcing the view that English society remains stubbornly anti-intellectual (and anti-male knitting), afraid of anyone who does not fear to speak his mind - let's see what's happening in Uruguay.
(9) Anyway, I won't prattle on for there is more live action to be found: San Jose Earthquakes vs LA Galaxy is about to kick off.
(10) Or it could be that the Sun loves me when I'm a prattling, giggling, Essex boy "Shagger of the Year", when I'm in my proper place, beneath vacuous headlines, herding their flock towards dumb lingo and crap bingo, when I'm being cheeky on MTV or even unwisely invading answerphones, in a way that many would argue, is less offensive than the manner that they are alleged to have done.
(11) Inexperienced MPs who prattle on about deeper UK involvement in Syria don’t yet grasp how merely symbolic much of it is nowadays.
(12) When I hear him prattle on inanely I can imagine how Neil Lennon felt when the Geordie dullard kicked him in the head."
(13) 2.30pm BST If you'd like to see me, Ian Prior, Barry Glendenning and Owen Gibson prattling on in front of a camera about Sir Alex Ferguson's retirement, then you're in luck!
(14) The forced cheerfulness of Nicholson's earlier scenes with the hotel manager are a sharp contrast to the sense of anger and tension as he drives and listens to his wife and son prattle on.
Ramble
Definition:
(v. i.) To walk, ride, or sail, from place to place, without any determinate object in view; to roam carelessly or irregularly; to rove; to wander; as, to ramble about the city; to ramble over the world.
(v. i.) To talk or write in a discursive, aimless way.
(v. i.) To extend or grow at random.
(n.) A going or moving from place to place without any determinate business or object; an excursion or stroll merely for recreation.
(n.) A bed of shale over the seam.
Example Sentences:
(1) The persona that emerged during day two of Breivik's 10-week trial was a rambling, repetitive obsessive, fixated on a threat he never truly managed to articulate, but which involved "cultural Marxists", whom he claimed had destroyed Norway by using it as "a dumping ground for the surplus births of the third world".
(2) In it he translated Trump’s coarse ramblings into charming straight talk and came up with the phrase “truthful hyperbole”, which captures brilliantly an approach to business and politics in which everything is the greatest, the most beautiful.
(3) There is also Mario Draghi at the ECB, rambling on about quantitative easing , a policy that Berlin detests.
(4) His statements to the police were rambling and often incoherent.
(5) Millions of people are coming out to vote … People that have never voted before.” In a rambling speech, Trump also said he was “disgusted” with companies that are leaving the US, called for better care for veterans and insisted that Isis would be destroyed, although he referred to the San Bernardino attacks as having happened in “Los Angeles” before correcting himself.
(6) After eight hours of rallying, Kuti was dismissive of accepting anything short of a full governmental U-turn as he settled down to a spliff in his home, a rambling two-storey affair down a potholed road.
(7) This goal was actually obscured by the tangled web of Prince's rambling 1906 book and his other publications on the case.
(8) But he'd been doing a bit of holiday cover for daytime DJs, and he has a tendency to, as he puts it, "ramble on": he recently treated the nation to a nine-minute oration on the shortcomings of Madonna's gig at Hyde Park.
(9) The caricature of the older person as slow, rambling and confused is a familiar stereotype, reinforced by a media that often focuses on perceived age-related failings in public figures such as Ronald Reagan, Menzies Campbell and, more recently, Rupert Murdoch.
(10) There was how he was responsible for one of the most jaw-droppingly crazy moments in deposition history where he responded to the question "is this your handwriting" with a rambling, lurid riff more suitable for a Penthouse letter section than the courtroom.
(11) The oft-criticised Active People survey will be replaced with a new measurement tool called Active Lives that will also measure other forms of activity such as cycling to work, dance and rambling as well as activity among children from the age of five for the first time.
(12) Fun.” In a 20-minute speech, Palin praised Trump and expressed her desire to “Make America Great Again”, using the opportunity to go on a rambling and confused attack on both parties.
(13) I am happy to ramble on about the benefits of a vegetarian lifestyle, but veggie dogs are some real bullshit “But Madeleine,” you say, “hot dogs are disgusting!
(14) Donald Trump’s mad hatter ramblings are outside the conservative reform movement and we will continue onward to deny him the nomination.” Kasich did not compete in Indiana as a result of a pact with Cruz and has so far only won his home state of Ohio.
(15) He took us on a long-distance ramble through his landmark priorities.
(16) During the summer there are regular guided rambles around the traditional Highland estate (a mix of farmed croft land, wood and moorland) and from Plockton to Kyle of Lochalsh, but it's worth keeping an eye out for special events and themed walks throughout the year.
(17) A Trump spokesperson emphasized to the Guardian that the Republican frontrunner’s answer was solely in response to the “training camps”, which is a common far rightwing conspiracy theory and not the questioner’s rambling statement before that.
(18) In answers that ranged from terse monosyllables to rambling monologues, Cayne said he wished the Securities and Exchange Commission had looked into the way rumours about Bear were spread: "Regardless of whether there was a conspiracy or not, the bottom line is the firm came under attack."
(19) I loved the short ramble around, and then the perfect recipe within.
(20) The steady feed of rambling selfie videos have prompted widespread mockery and scorn and in some cases have clearly further distracted from the plight of Harney County ranchers whom the militia claim to be backing.