[f. as prec. + -ING2.] That tattles; chattering; gossiping; tale-telling.
1557. North, trans. Gueuara’s Diall Pr. (1568) 171. There is nothing that preiudiceth troth so much, as a tattling tongue that neuer lyeth: being in maner impossible, that amongst many woords some lye bee not enterlaced.
1581. J. Bell, Haddon’s Answ. Osor., 28. Blowen abroad … amongest tattlyng women, foolishe children.
1664. Butler, Hud., II. I. 77. This tattling Gossip knew too well What mischief Hudibras befell.
1712. Arbuthnot, John Bull, III. v. Tatting people that carried tales.
1841. Hood, Tale Trumpet, 92. In the prattling, tattling village of Tringham.
b. transf. and fig.: cf. babbling; sometimes = ‘tell-tale.’
1576. Gascoigne, Philomene, 35. The tatling Awbe doth please some fancie wel, And some like best, the byrde as Black as cole.
1652. Benlowes, Theoph., IV. lxviii. When keen breath’d winds … glaze tatling stream.
1731. Swift, Cassinus & Peter, Wks. 1755, IV. I. 165. Nor whisper to the tattling reeds The blackest of all female deeds.
1881. E. Arnold, Ind. Poetry, 91. Let him hear the tattling ripple Of the bangles round thy feet.
Hence Tattlingly adv.
1847. in Webster.
