/ English Dictionary

GOSSIP

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Light informal conversation for social occasions

Synonyms:

causerie; chin-wag; chin-wagging; chin wag; chin wagging; chit-chat; chit chat; chitchat; gab; gabfest; gossip; small talk; tittle-tattle

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Hypernyms ("gossip" is a kind of...):

chat; confab; confabulation; schmoose; schmooze (an informal conversation)

Derivation:

gossip (talk socially without exchanging too much information)

gossipy (prone to friendly informal communication)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A report (often malicious) about the behavior of other people

Example:

the divorce caused much gossip

Synonyms:

comment; gossip; scuttlebutt

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Hypernyms ("gossip" is a kind of...):

account; report (the act of informing by verbal report)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "gossip"):

earful (an outpouring of gossip)

hearsay; rumor; rumour (gossip (usually a mixture of truth and untruth) passed around by word of mouth)

grapevine; pipeline; word of mouth (gossip spread by spoken communication)

dirt; malicious gossip; scandal (disgraceful gossip about the private lives of other people)

talk; talk of the town (idle gossip or rumor)

Derivation:

gossip (wag one's tongue; speak about others and reveal secrets or intimacies)

Sense 3

Meaning:

A person given to gossiping and divulging personal information about others

Synonyms:

gossip; gossiper; gossipmonger; newsmonger; rumormonger; rumourmonger

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Hypernyms ("gossip" is a kind of...):

communicator (a person who communicates with others)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "gossip"):

cat (a spiteful woman gossip)

scandalmonger (a person who spreads malicious gossip)

blabbermouth; talebearer; taleteller; tattler; tattletale; telltale (someone who gossips indiscreetly)

yenta ((Yiddish) a woman who talks too much; a gossip unable to keep a secret; a woman who spreads rumors and scandal)

Derivation:

gossip (wag one's tongue; speak about others and reveal secrets or intimacies)

 II. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Talk socially without exchanging too much information

Example:

the men were sitting in the cafe and shooting the breeze

Synonyms:

chaffer; chat; chatter; chew the fat; chit-chat; chitchat; claver; confab; confabulate; gossip; jaw; natter; shoot the breeze; visit

Classified under:

Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing

Hypernyms (to "gossip" is one way to...):

converse; discourse (carry on a conversation)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "gossip"):

jawbone; schmoose; schmooze; shmoose; shmooze (talk idly or casually and in a friendly way)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s

Derivation:

gossip (light informal conversation for social occasions)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Wag one's tongue; speak about others and reveal secrets or intimacies

Example:

She won't dish the dirt

Synonyms:

dish the dirt; gossip

Classified under:

Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing

Hypernyms (to "gossip" is one way to...):

speak; talk (exchange thoughts; talk with)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "gossip"):

bruit; rumor; rumour (tell or spread rumors)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s
Somebody ----s PP

Sentence examples:

Sam and Sue gossip

Sam wants to gossip with Sue

Derivation:

gossip (a report (often malicious) about the behavior of other people)

gossip; gossiper (a person given to gossiping and divulging personal information about others)

gossiping (a conversation that spreads personal information about other people)

Credits

 Context examples: 

She was a great talker upon little matters, which exactly suited Mr. Woodhouse, full of trivial communications and harmless gossip.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

However, I must not sit gossiping here, but must get these disreputable clothes off and return to my highly respectable self.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

"You're gossiping like a pair of beldames," she chided them.

(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)

Now, dear Victor, I dare say you wish to be indulged in a little gossip concerning the good people of Geneva.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

One day he said to her: Listen, I have a good idea, there is our gossip the carpenter, he shall make us a wooden calf, and paint it brown, so that it looks like any other, and in time it will certainly get big and be a cow. the woman also liked the idea, and their gossip the carpenter cut and planed the calf, and painted it as it ought to be, and made it with its head hanging down as if it were eating.

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)

"No, no, no, it cannot be," she cried; "she cannot feel. Her kindness is not sympathy; her good-nature is not tenderness. All that she wants is gossip, and she only likes me now because I supply it."

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

The remaining three, Mrs. Rushworth, Mrs. Norris, and Julia, were still far behind; for Julia, whose happy star no longer prevailed, was obliged to keep by the side of Mrs. Rushworth, and restrain her impatient feet to that lady's slow pace, while her aunt, having fallen in with the housekeeper, who was come out to feed the pheasants, was lingering behind in gossip with her.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

The Ladies Lynn and Ingram continued to consort in solemn conferences, where they nodded their two turbans at each other, and held up their four hands in confronting gestures of surprise, or mystery, or horror, according to the theme on which their gossip ran, like a pair of magnified puppets.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

The day was unusually fine till the afternoon, when some of the gossips who frequent the East Cliff churchyard, and from that commanding eminence watch the wide sweep of sea visible to the north and east, called attention to a sudden show of mares'-tails high in the sky to the north-west.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

Though her engagement to Martin had been kept secret, their long intimacy had not been unproductive of gossip; and in the shop, glancing covertly at her lover and his following, had been several of her acquaintances.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

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