chatterbox
Americannoun
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of chatterbox
First recorded in 1765–75; i.e., person whose voice box chatters constantly
Explanation
A chatterbox is a person who tends to use a whole lot of words without having much of anything to say. If you're constantly whispering to your friend during math class, your annoyed teacher might call you a chatterbox. The informal word chatterbox is the perfect term for the annoying, incessant talker you always seem to end up sitting next to on long plane trips. Chatterbox dates from the 1770s, a combination of chatter, an echoic or onomatopoeic word, and box, giving chatterbox the sense of "a box or container full of idle chatter."
Vocabulary lists containing chatterbox
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Her Elphaba is quiet and tender, a perfect complement to Grande’s joke-cracking chatterbox Glinda.
From Salon ● Nov. 19, 2024
The film is an evocation of character, place and time, the tempo alternating between moody and lively, like our central odd couple, laconic Benny and chatterbox Kathy.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 19, 2024
“I am not leaving here. I am ready for them to bury me here,” said Kahlon, a gruff but amiable chatterbox with a grey beard and beret.
From Seattle Times ● Jul. 12, 2023
Mr. McKenzie, conversely, is a chatterbox: For two hours, he grilled Mr. Harris on the energy costs of crypto mining and the practical utility of Bitcoin as the camera rolled.
From New York Times ● Mar. 31, 2022
If Mama had gone silent, Penelope had become an absolute chatterbox.
From "Ophie's Ghosts" by Justina Ireland
And she did so while taking chatterboxes to task after allegations of cheating swirled around Shumpert and appeared to eclipse the beloved couple’s seven-year marriage.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 18, 2023
There is a quiet seriousness to her, especially when she talks about her work, that is far removed from the narcissistic chatterboxes she has played.
From The Guardian ● May 31, 2019
They are also what he calls chatterboxes — power hungry and constantly active.
From Nature ● Oct. 25, 2016
Morning chatterboxes at Fox News remind us, as if we could forget, that Christians believe in redemption and second chances.
From Washington Post ● Oct. 11, 2016
I had to laugh too, though I'd nearly exhausted my ingenuity on the topic of chatterboxes.
From "The Diary of a Young Girl" by Anne Frank
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
