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To shatter to pieces; to reduce to fragments. The victim broke in pieces the musical instruments with which he had solaced the hours of captivity. Prescott.

Set with briers. Chatterton.

To talk much and idly; to chatter. Trench.

To shiver or chatter with cold. [Scot.] Burns.

To talk noisily; to chatter loudly. [Obs.] Chaucer.

Rapid, noisy talk; babble; chatter. "Hold still thy clatter." Towneley Myst. (15 th Cent. ). Throw by your clatter And handle the matter. B. Jonson

Frivolous or nonsensical talk; prattle; chattering. [Scot. & North of Eng.] Emmy found herself entirely at a loss in the midst of their clavers. Thackeray.

up of, or containing many, consonants. No Russian whose dissonant consonant name Almost shatters to fragments the trumpet of fame. T. Moore.

ily Cotingidæ, including numerous bright- colored South American species; -- called also chatterers.

Broken, weakened, or dissordered in intellect; shattered; demented; deranged. Over moist and crazy brains. Hudibras.

To break, as by throwing or by collision; to shatter; to crust; to frustrate; to ruin. Thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel. Ps. ii. 9. A brave vessel, . . . Dashed all to pieces. Shak. To perplex and dash Maturest counsels. Milton.

To break to pieces; to shatter. [Obs.] Sir T. Browne.

Shattered; infirm. "A laurel grew, doddered with age." Dryden.

handbill. -- Fly snapper (Zoöl.), an American bird (Phainopepla nitens), allied to the chatterers and shrikes. The male is glossy blue-black; the female brownish gray. -- Fly wheel (Mach.), a heavy wheel attached to machinery to equalize the movement (opposing any sudden acceleration by its inertia and any retardati…

The mouth; hence, idle prate; chatter; unmeaning talk; loquaciousness. [Colloq.] Gift of gab, facility of expression. [Colloq.]

A dealer in small wares, as tapes, pins, needles, and thread; also, a hatter. [Obs.] The haberdasher heapeth wealth by hats. Gascoigne.

Also, a person of thing that smites or shatters; as, St. Augustine was the hammer of heresies. He met the stern legionaries [of Rome] who had been the "massive iron hammers" of the whole earth. J. H. Newman. Atmospheric hammer, a dead-stroke hammer in which the spring is formed by confined air. -- Drop hammer, Face ha…

Professional cant; the chatter of conjurers to divert attention from their tricks; hence, jugglery. [Colloq.]

To maunder; to talk foolishly; to chatter. [Scot.] Sir W. Scott.

To make a dissonant, discordant noise one with another; to talk or chatter noisily. [R.] Daniel.