Phrase guide
Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.
Sound
Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.
verb
To chat idly or generally waste time talking.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: informal
Synonyms: chew the rag, shoot the breeze, shoot the shit, shoot the bull, throw the bull
Antonyms: none provided
verb
talk socially without exchanging too much information
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
Synonyms: shoot the breeze, chat, confabulate, confab, chitchat, chit-chat, chatter, chaffer, natter, gossip, jaw, claver, visit
Antonyms: none provided
Broader terms: converse, discourse
Narrower terms: shmooze, shmoose, schmooze, schmoose, jawbone
History
One of the possible origins is from the fact that after a meal people would go into their sitting room with their guests and chit chat while chewing on the fat left over from a meal. Another possibility comes from sailors who often had salted beef and pork on long voyages and the fat would harden. Sailors would eat and complain about the hard life of the sea while "chewing the fat" Probably just from comparison of the jaw movements in chewing to the jaw movements in talking.
