Obs. exc. dial. [f. as prec. + -ING2.]
1. That ‘twattles’; chattering, babbling, prating. (Said of the person, or of the talk.)
1573. Twyne, Æneid, XI. H h iv. Persist, And thoundre out thy twatling talke, as longe as thou shalt list.
1647. Lilly, Chr. Astrol., cxxxiv. 594. She is … a twatling huswife, making discord where-ever she comes.
1702. Eng. Theophrast., 165. It is not for every Twatling Gossip.
1845. Daily National Plot (Buffalo, N.Y.), 8 March, 3/2. The twattling organ of the ‘Upper Ten Thousand,’ which has been ‘running emptins’ some time past, has at last reached the lowest depth of silly-dom.
2. Sounding, making a noise. vulgar.
Twattling strings, a vulgar expression for the sphincter ani.
1611. Florio, Naccare, drom-slades…. Also vsed for twatling fartes.
1654. Gayton, Pleas. Notes, II. iii. 83. Her Base Violl went … with great danger of breaking her twatling-strings.
1739. ‘R. Bull,’ trans. Dedekindus’ Grobianus, 268. Her twattling Strings, with Laughter overcome, No more contract the Passage of the Bum.
† 3. Petty, trifling, paltry: = TWADDLING a. 1 b. Obs. rare–1. [Perh, related to TWATTLE sb.2].
1651. Miller of Mansf., 20. You feed us with twatling dishes so small.
