chat

—chattable, adj.

/chat/, v., chatted, chatting, n.

v.i.

1. to converse in a familiar or informal manner.

v.t.

2. chat up, Chiefly Brit.

a. to talk flirtatiously with.

b. to talk to in a friendly, open way.

n.

3. informal conversation: We had a pleasant chat.

4. any of several small Old World thrushes, esp. of the genus Saxicola, having a chattering cry.

5. See yellow-breasted chat.

[1400-50; late ME; short for CHATTER]

Syn. 1, 3. talk, chitchat, gossip, visit.

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I

Any of several species of songbird named for their harsh, chattering notes.

True chats (chat-thrushes) make up a major division of the thrush family (Turdidae). Australian chats (usually placed in the family Maluridae), which inhabit scrubby open lands, are about 5 in. (13 cm) long. The yellow-breasted chat (Icteria virens, family Parulidae) of North America is the largest wood warbler (7.5 in., or 19 cm, long). Greenish gray above and bright yellow below, with white "spectacles," it hides in thickets but may perch in the open to utter its mewing, churring, and whistling sounds. See also redstart.

Yellow-breasted chat (Icteria virens)

Ron Austing

Bruce Coleman Inc.

II

Real-time conversation among computer users in a networked environment such as the Internet.

After a user types a text message and presses the Enter key, the text immediately appears on the other users' computers, permitting typed conversations that are often only somewhat slower than normal conversation. A chat can be private (between two users) or public (where other users can see the messages and participate if they wish). Public chatting is conducted in "chat rooms," Web sites devoted to chat, usually about a specific topic. The thousands of chat rooms now available typically use the IRC (Internet Relay Chat) protocol, developed in 1988 by Jarkko Oikarinen of Finland. See also bulletin-board system.

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▪ bird

 any of several songbirds (suborder Passeres, order Passeriformes) named for their harsh, chattering notes.

      True chats make up a major division of the thrush family Turdidae (or subfamily Turdinae of the Muscicapidae); they are collectively grouped under chat-thrushes (q.v.).

      Australian chats are chiefly Epthianura species, usually placed in the family Maluridae but sometimes separated as the subfamily Epthianurinae (both groups are sometimes considered families). Nomadic inhabitants of scrubby open lands of the south, they feed on terrestrial insects. All are about 13 centimetres (5 inches) long. The white-faced chat (E. albifrons) is white and gray, with a black band from nape to breast (male); it is also called tang, from its metallic note.

      The yellow-breasted chat (Icteria virens) of North America is, at 19 cm (7 ¹/₂ in.), the largest member of the wood-warbler family Parulidae—if in fact it belongs there. Greenish-gray above and bright yellow below, with white “spectacles” (sexes alike), it skulks in thickets but may perch in the open to utter its mewing, churring, and whistling sounds.

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