Talk
Pronunciation
Origin
From Middle English talken, talkien, from Old English *tealcian ("to talk, chat"), from Proto-Germanic *talkÅnÄ… ("to talk, chatter"), frequentative form of Proto-Germanic *talÅnÄ… ("to count, recount, tell"), from Proto-Indo-European *dol-, *del- ("to aim, calculate, adjust, count"), equivalent to tell + -k. Cognate with Scots talk ("to talk"), Eastern Frisian talken ("to talk, chat"), Low German Talk ("talk"). Related also to Danish tale ("to talk, speak"), Swedish tala ("to talk, speak, say, chatter"), Icelandic tala ("to talk"), Old English talian ("to count, calculate, reckon, account, consider, think, esteem, value; argue; tell, relate; impute, assign"). More at tale.
Full definition of talk
Noun
talk
(plural talks)- A conversation or discussion.
- 1918, W. B. Maxwell, The Mirror and the Lamp Chapter 12, All this was extraordinarily distasteful to Churchill....Never before had he felt such repulsion when the vicar displayed his characteristic bluntness or coarseness of speech. In the present connexion—or rather as a transition from the subject that started their conversation—such talk had been distressingly out of place.
- We need to have a talk about your homework.
- A lecture.There's a talk about Shakespeare on tonight.
- (preceded by the) A major topic of social discussion.She is the talk of the day. The musical is the talk of the town.
- (not preceded by an article) Empty boasting, promises or claims.The party leader's speech was all talk.
Synonyms
Derived terms
Verb
- (transitive) To communicate, usually by means of speech.
- William ShakespeareI will buy with you, sell with you, talk with you, walk with you, and so following, but I will not eat with you.
- 1913, Joseph C. Lincoln, Mr. Pratt's Patients Chapter 4, Then he commenced to talk, really talk. and inside of two flaps of a herring's fin he had me mesmerized, like Eben Holt's boy at the town hall show. He talked about the ills of humanity, and the glories of health and Nature and service and land knows what all. … It was a chance he was offering me, a wonderful, eighteen carat, solid gold chance.
- 1963, Margery Allingham, The China Governess Chapter 5, Mr. Campion appeared suitably impressed and she warmed to him. He was very easy to talk to with those long clown lines in his pale face, a natural goon, born rather too early she suspected.
- Although I don't speak Chinese I managed to talk with the villagers using signs and gestures.They sat down to talk business. We talk French sometimes.
- (transitive, informal) To discuss.They sat down to talk business. We're not talking rocket science here: it should be easy.
- (intransitive, slang) To confess, especially implicating others.Suppose he talks? She can be relied upon not to talk. They tried to make me talk.
- (intransitive) To criticize someone for something of which one is guilty oneself.I am not the one to talk. She is a fine one to talk. You should talk. Look who's talking.
- (intransitive) To gossip; to create scandal.
- 1918, W. B. Maxwell, The Mirror and the Lamp Chapter 13, “… They talk of you as if you were Croesus—and I expect the beggars sponge on you unconscionably.” And Vickers launched forth into a tirade very different from his platform utterances. He spoke with extreme contempt of the dense stupidity exhibited on all occasions by the working classes.
- People will talk. Aren't you afraid the neighbours will talk?