confabulate

[kuh n-fab-yuh-leyt]

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR confabulate ON THESAURUS.COM

verb (used without object), con·fab·u·lat·ed, con·fab·u·lat·ing.

to converse informally; chat.

Psychiatry. to engage in confabulation.

Origin of confabulate

1605–15; < Latin confābulātus (past participle of confābulārī to talk together), equivalent to con- con- + fābul(a) conversation (see fable) + -ātus -ate¹

Related formscon·fab·u·la·tor, noun

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Related Words for confabulate

confab, chitchat, palaver, chat, chatter, discuss, talk, speak, chaffer

Examples from the Web for confabulate

Historical Examples of confabulate

An' whut dem six ghostes do but stand round an' confabulate?
Humorous Ghost Stories
Dorothy Scarborough
Eden is not yet returned from Woodstock; I will confabulate with him.
Private Letters of Edward Gibbon (1753-1794) Volume 1 (of 2)
Edward Gibbon
In this manner, said my master, did the parson and I confabulate; and I set him down at his lodgings in the village.
Pamela, or Virtue Rewarded
Samuel Richardson
She does not break the thread of a conversation by irrelevant questions or confabulate in an undertone with the servants.
Worldly Ways and Byways
Eliot Gregory
Birds of a feather not only flock together, but, as every ornithologist knows full well, can confabulate.
Country Rambles, and Manchester Walks and Wild Flowers
Leo H. Grindon

British Dictionary definitions for confabulate

confabulate

verb (intr)

to talk together; converse; chat

psychiatry to replace the gaps left by a disorder of the memory with imaginary remembered experiences consistently believed to be trueSee also paramnesia

Derived Formsconfabulation, nounconfabulator, nounconfabulatory, adjective

Word Origin for confabulate

C17: from Latin confābulārī, from fābulārī to talk, from fābula a story; see fable

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

Word Origin and History for confabulate

1610s, from confabulatus, past participle of Latin confabulari "to converse together," from com- "together" (see com-) + fabulari "to talk, chat," from fabula "a tale" (see fable). Psychiatric sense is from 1924.