Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun One who tattles.
- noun Either of two shorebirds of the genus Tringa found in Asia, Australia, and western North America, especially T. incana, noted for its loud cry.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun One who tattles; an idle talker; a prattler; a telltale.
- noun In ornithology, a bird of the family Scolopacidæ and genus Totanus in a broad sense; one of the Totaneæ; a horseman or gambet: so called from the vociferous cries of most of these birds.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun One who tattles; an idle talker; one who tells tales.
- noun (Zoöl.) Any one of several species of large, long-legged sandpipers belonging to the genus Totanus.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun One who
tattles (notifies authorities of illicit behavior) or is inclined to do so; atattletale . - noun Either of two similar
bird species in theshorebird genus Heteroscelus (Tringa in some taxonomies). - noun A
device fitted to avehicle to measuremileage etc.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun any of several long-legged shorebirds having a loud whistling cry
- noun someone who gossips indiscreetly
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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On shipboard he would be a sneak, a whiner, a tattler.
Chapter 3 2010
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Eastern Willet, Tringa s. semipalmata synonym; Catoptrophorus semipalmatus, formerly; Symphemia semipalmata, protonym; Scolopax semipalmata, also known as the semipalmated tattler or simply as the willet, photographed at Bolivar Peninsula, Texas, USA.
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Don't be such a tattler, Chloe, or you'll have to stay in at recess.
Obama: U.S., Russia 'quite close' to forging new START treaty 2009
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Pressure the school to gradually change its culture, so that showing concern is labeled as being heroic, rather than being a tattler.
Childhood Unbound Ron Taffel 2009
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And now I get to go back to work tomorrow faced with the dilemma of tattlin on the tattler to my own boss or playing dumb about it.
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Pressure the school to gradually change its culture, so that showing concern is labeled as being heroic, rather than being a tattler.
Childhood Unbound Ron Taffel 2009
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He is not a whit less a tattler and a scandal monger than the old Roman tonsor or Figaro, his confrère in Southern Europe.
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Love your neighbor signifies assist your neighbor, but not — enjoy his conversation with pleasure, if he be tiresome; confide to him your secrets, if he be a tattler; or lend him your money, if he be a spendthrift.
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It was she — the foolish tattler — who had set the report abroad regarding the poor Indian woman.
The Virginians 2006
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I like the quote from the intelligence tittle-tattler: In this business nothing is unlikely.
Rock steady Alistair Myles 2006
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