chinwag

American

[chin-wag] / ˈtʃɪnˌwæg /

verb (used without object)

chinwagged, chinwagging

to chat idly; gossip.

noun

an idle chat; gossiping.

chinwag British

/ ˈtʃɪnˌwæɡ /

noun

informal a chat or gossipy conversation

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Etymology

Origin of chinwag

First recorded in 1875–80; chin + wag

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.

It got quite deep for a glitzy award show chinwag.

From BBC • Feb. 28, 2026

Is it a grand intellectual battle, or just an insiders’ chinwag?

From New York Times • Mar. 13, 2024

And Paul Doyle had a chinwag with Jan Åge Fjørtoft about that season earlier in the week.

From The Guardian • Jan. 7, 2022

My first comment today concerns not the comments of the other contributors to this Slate chinwag, but rather Linda Greenhouse’s New York Times op-ed Thursday about the Supreme Court’s cellphone decision, Riley v.

From Slate • Jun. 30, 2014

It's hard to think of a more Comic-Con-friendly event than the afternoon's chinwag between Joss Whedon and JJ Abrams, which should easily fill the 6,000-seater hall.

From The Guardian • Jul. 22, 2010

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023