gossip

gossip n *report, rumor, hearsay

Analogous words: talk, conversation (see corresponding verbs at SPEAK): tattling, blabbing (see GOSSIP vb)

gossip vb Gossip, blab, tattle mean to disclose something that one would have done better to keep to oneself.

To gossip is to communicate or exchange in conversation remarks, often uncomplimentary or damaging and of questionable veracity, about the private affairs of others, especially acquaintances or neighbors

{

gossip about the squabbles of the family next door

}

{

Tat always got furious when people gossiped about her— Pinckney

}

{

must see that none of these reporters get into the Castle, and that nobody from the Castle gossips with them— Buchan

}

To blab is to disclose something private or secret that has been confided to one or that has come to one's knowledge

{

if he sees cards and actual money passing, he will be sure to blab, and it will be all over the town in no time— Conrad

}

{

confessions made to him are . . . rarely blabbed— Morley

}

Tattle sometimes is more closely akin to gossip, sometimes to blab, or it may combine the implications of the two. It suggests loose and loquacious gossip, or unsolicited revelation to one having power of discipline or punishment of some trivial misdeed on the part of another, or blabbing gossip that is usually a betrayal of confidence

{

Mary always tattled to the teacher when a classmate threw a spitball

}

{

so that no discovery . . . might be made by any tattling amongst the servants— Hook

}