tittle-tattle

Reduplication of tattle.

tittle-tattle (countable and uncountable, plural tittle-tattles)

1. petty, idle gossip.
   • 1712, John Arbuthnot, chapter XI, in Law is a Bottomless Pit: Or, the History of John Bull, London, page 136:

     Every idle Tittle-tattle that went about, Jack was always suspected for the author of it.

   • 1848 November – 1850 December, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 16, in The History of Pendennis. […], volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1849–1850, OCLC 2057953:

     She has trouble enough on her hands, with the affairs of that silly young scapegrace, without being pestered by the tittle-tattle of this place. It is all an invention of that fool, Fribsby.

2. An idle, trifling talker; a gossip.
   • 1777, The Tatler; Or, Lucubrations of Isaac Bickerstaff, Esq, volume 4, Dublin: W. Whitestone, W. Watson, J. Williams, W. Wilson, edition of The Tatler n° 268 (1710) by Richard Steele, page 324:

     If I can once extirpate the race of solid and substantial humdrums, I hope by my wholesome and repeated advices, quickly to reduce the insignificant tittle-tattles and matter-of-fact-men that abound in every quarter of this great city.

tittle-tattle (third-person singular simple present tittle-tattles, present participle tittle-tattling, simple past and past participle tittle-tattled)

1. To engage in such gossip.
2. To spread gossip.