Dictionary Thesaurus Word Dynamo Quotes Reference Translator Spanish

twaddle

[twod-l]

Origin

noun

trivial, feeble, silly, or tedious talk or writing.

verb (used without object)

to talk in a trivial, feeble, silly, or tedious manner; prate.

:10

:09

:08

:07

:06

:05

:04

:03

:02

:01

Twaddle is one of our favorite verbs.

So is hornswoggle. Does it mean:

to steal or take dishonestly (money, esp. public funds, or property entrusted to one's care); embezzle.

to swindle, cheat, hoodwink, or hoax.

LEARN MORE FUN, UNUSUAL VERBS WITH WORD DYNAMO...

verb (used with object)

to utter as twaddle.

Origin:
1540–50; variant of twattle, blend of twiddle and tattle

Related forms

twad·dler, noun

twad·dly, adjective

Synonyms
1. drivel, nonsense, prattle, rubbish.

Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
Cite This Source

Link To twaddle

Collins

World English Dictionary

twaddle (ˈtwɒd^əl)

—n
1.	silly, trivial, or pretentious talk or writing; nonsense

—vb
2.	to talk or write (something) in a silly or pretentious way

[C16 twattle, variant of twittle or tittle; see tittle-tattle]

'twaddler

—n

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
Cite This Source

Etymonline

Word Origin & History

twaddle

"silly talk," 1782, probably from twattle (1556), of obscure origin.

Word Dynamo By Dictionary.com

Searching for twaddle?
How many words do you actually know?

FIND OUT

Related Words

blah drivel

nonsense twit

Matching Quote

"Literary criticism can be no more than a reasoned account of the feeling produced upon the critic by the book he is criticizing. Criticism can never be a science: it is, in the first place, much too personal, and in the second, it is concerned with values that science ignores. The touchstone is emotion, not reason. We judge a work of art by its effect on our sincere and vital emotion, and nothing else. All the critical twiddle-twaddle about style and form, all this pseudoscientific classifying and analysing of books in an imitation-botanical fashion, is mere impertinence and mostly dull jargon."

-D.H. Lawrence

Partners:Word Bloglines Citysearch The Daily Beast Ask Answers Ask Kids Life123 Sendori Thesaurus

About Privacy Policy Terms of Use API Careers Advertise with Us Contact Us Help