subs. (colloquial).—Familiar talk. [A contraction of confabulation; Latin confabulatio.]

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  1778.  BURNEY, Diary, etc. (1876), vol. I., p. 37. We had a very nice CONFAB about various books.

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  1789.  WOLCOT (‘Peter Pindar’), To the Academicians, in wks. (Dublin, 1795), vol. II., p. 26.

        For lo, with many a King and many a Queen,
In close CONFAB the gentleman is seen.

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  1841.  Punch, vol. I., 75. Sibthorp, meeting Peel in the House of Commons after congratulating him on his present enviable position, finished the CONFAB with the following unrivalled conundrum.

4

  1850.  F. E. SMEDLEY, Frank Fairlegh, ch. xxv. ‘Mr. Harry … called Mr. Archer into his own room, and they had a CONFAB.’

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  1884.  W. C. RUSSELL, Jack’s Courtship, ch. viii. This ended our CONFAB and half an hour afterwards I stood in the hall shaking hands all round.

6

  Verb.—To talk in a familiar manner; to chat.—See subs., sense.

7

  1778.  BURNEY, Diary, etc. (1876), vol. I., p. 85. Mrs. Thrale and I were dressing, and, as usual, CONFABBING.

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