twaddle

American  

[twod-l] / ˈtwɒd l /

noun

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

   Synonyms:

   rubbish, prattle, nonsense, drivel

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verb (used without object)

twaddled, twaddling

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

verb (used with object)

twaddled, twaddling

1. to utter as twaddle.

twaddle British  

/ ˈtwɒdəl /

noun

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

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verb

1. to talk or write (something) in a silly or pretentious way

Other Word Forms

• twaddler
  noun
• twaddly
  adjective

Etymology

Origin of twaddle

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

Explanation

Twaddle is utter nonsense. A political candidate may be charming and attractive, but if their speech is full of twaddle, it doesn't make much sense to vote for them. Twaddle is silly foolishness — it's balderdash, drivel, or nonsense. You might dismiss both a billionaire's ridiculous invention and your sibling's fashion magazines as twaddle. If you write a book report for English class without even skimming the book, it will be immediately obvious to your teacher that it's total twaddle. The origin of this word isn't clear, though etymologists know it was originally twittle.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

twaddle twaddled twaddling

In an earlier BBC interview, the party's deputy leader Richard Tice dismissed the claims from Farage's former classmates as "made-up twaddle".

From BBC ● Dec. 4, 2025

Even if they lose this case—and I think they probably will—they’ll still have gotten away with a whole lot of twaddle that should have landed them in hot water.

From Slate ● Dec. 11, 2023

To "The View," McCain was more than a spout of parbaked twaddle delivered with tell-it-like-it-is confidence.

From Salon ● Aug. 5, 2021

It turns out that many things I thought about autism were twaddle.

From The Guardian ● Dec. 24, 2019

“Posh and twaddle and fiddlesticks!” shouted Major Puff, as if by saying those words he countered the fact of the caribou’s quickness.

From "The Very, Very Far North" by Dan Bar-el

“A gift for all of us to enjoy,” The Golf Channel’s Rich Lerner twaddled this week.

From Salon ● Apr. 11, 2013

We twaddled a great deal over the speech.

From A Political Diary 1828-1830, Volume II by Ellenborough, Edward Law, Earl of

Look at Wordsworth; in his lifetime the general reading public considered him a prosy old gentleman, who twaddled pleasantly about lakes and mountains, and pretty little peasant girls.

From Vixen, Volume III. by Braddon, M. E. (Mary Elizabeth)

All that day, morning, afternoon, and evening, I laboured or twaddled at arithmetic with Mr. Howse.

From Story of My Life, volumes 1-3 by Hare, Augustus J. C.

And, after weeping the usual quantity, he twaddled, and, after twaddling, he became as pacific as ever, for he went to sleep in his chair.

From Put Yourself in His Place by Reade, Charles

If Jules existed in my real life, I'd have started screening calls to avoid her twaddling on months ago.

From The Guardian ● Mar. 27, 2010

You feel that their edgy suburban twaddling may be the way Hollywood heavies really behave in private.

From Time Magazine Archive

He is seated at a table with three other men, twaddling a fat cigar between the finger and thumb of one hand and holding five fanned cards in the other.

From "Water for Elephants" by Sara Gruen

All which details, I have no doubt, JONES, who reads this book at his Club, will pronounce to be excessively foolish, trivial, twaddling, and ultra-sentimental.

From Vanity Fair by Thackeray, William Makepeace

Mr. Dulcet, however, in his superb free verse, has scaled olympian heights, disdaining the customary twaddling topics of the rhymesters.

From Mince Pie by Morley, Christopher