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Idle talk or chat; tittle-tattle.

Idle, trifling talk; empty prattle. Arbuthnot.

To prate; to talk much and idly; to gabble; to chatter; to twaddle; as, a twattling gossip. L'Estrange.

One who twattles; a twaddler.

Tattle; gabble. L'Estrange.

The diamond rattlesnake (Crotalus adamanteus); -- so called from its preference for damp places near water.

A twig or flexible rod; hence, a hurdle made of such rods. And there he built with wattles from the marsh A little lonely church in days of yore. Tennyson.

llied genera of the family Meliphagidæ. These birds usually have a large and conspicuous wattle of naked skin hanging down below each ear. They are natives of Australia and adjacent islands.

Furnished with wattles, or pendent fleshy processes at the chin or throat. The wattled cocks strut to and fro. Longfellow.

Without any power (cf. Watt); -- said of an alternating current or component of current when it differs in phase by ninety degrees from the electromotive force which produces it, or of an electromotive force or component thereof when the current it produces differs from it in phase by 90 degrees.

Stealing cattle on a large scale. [Obs.]

One who steals and drives away cattle or beasts by herds or droves. [Obs.]

A public slaughterhouse for cattle, sheep, etc.

l of transactions; a relation or narrative; a report; a description; as, an account of a battle. "A laudable account of the city of London." Howell.

or conduct one's self; to perform one's part; as, the soldier acquitted himself well in battle; the orator acquitted himself very poorly.

A chronic infectious disease of cattle and man due to the presence of Actinomyces bovis. It causes local suppurating tumors, esp. about the jaw. Called also lumpy jaw or big jaw. -- Ac`ti*no*my*cot"ic (#), a.

An engagement between troops in war, whether on land or water; a battle; a fight; as, a general action, a partial action.

An action or engagement not of sufficient magnitude to be called a battle.

To take to graze or pasture, at a certain sum; -- used originally of the feeding of cattle in the king's forests, and collecting the money for the same. Blackstone.

Formerly, an officer of the king's forest, who had the care of cattle agisted, and collected the money for the same; -- hence called gisttaker, which in England is corrupted into guest-taker.