Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. to talk rapidly, fluently or glibly, to chatter, to prattle.

1500		How the Ploughman learned his Paternoster in Halliwell Dict. Archaic and Provincial Words (1881) II 608/1: Ever he patred on theyr names faste; Than he had them in ordre at the laste .
1523		Skelton Colyn Cloute (1550) Ai: He prates and he patters, He clytters and he clatters.
1533		J. Heywood A Merry Play in Farmer Dramatic Writings (1905) 83: Of what thing now dost thou clatter, / John John? or whereof dost thou patter?
1533		J. Heywood A Merry Play in Farmer Dramatic Writings (1905) 83: Of what thing now dost thou clatter, / John John? or whereof dost thou patter?
1546		J. Heywood Proverbs I Ch. xi: And streight as she sawe me, she swelde lyke a tode. / Pattryng the divels Pater noster to her selfe.
1561		Godly Queene Hester in Grosart (1870) 22: By his crafti pattering, hath turned law into flattering .
1577		Misogonus in Farmer (1906) II iv: I’ll patter’t as well as I can.
1589		Nashe Death and Buriall of Martin Mar-Prelate in Works I (1883–4) 173: See how like the old Ape this young Monkey pattereth.
1600		W. Perkins A golden chaine 745: That worships God with lip-seruice [...] as our common people doe, which place all the seruice of God in pattering and mumbling ouer the [...] praiers [...] without knowledge of the meaning.
1619		J. Favour Antiquitie triumphing ouer noueltie 407: Thus did they patter their prayers, speaking gibbrish or Pedlers French.
1624		G. Close The rocke of religion 132: [P]attering of sencelesse and stinted prayers.
1639		R. Sibbes Sermons 115: [D]oe they not prophane the Lords Prayer, when they say, Hallowed be thy name, Thy Kingdome come? They patter it over, they doe not meane it in good earnest.
1684		The tongue combatants 5: Thew continual pattering of your lips.
1781		G. Parker View of Society II 105: As soon as the steward has withdawn, the ’Squire begins to patter the widow on the greatness of his estate.
a.1790		C. Dibdin ‘The Waggoner’ Collection of Songs II 182: Your natty sparks and flashy dames / How I do love to queer, / I runs my rigs, / And patters, and gigs, / And plays a hundred comical games.
1812		Vaux Vocab. of the Flash Lang.
1829		D. Jerrold Black-Ey’d Susan III ii: If, when that’s overhauled, I’m not found a trim seaman, why it’s only throwing salt to the fishes to patter here.
1848		‘Ned Buntline’ Mysteries and Miseries of N.Y. I 37: Nothin’ much worth pattering about.
1852		Kendal Mercury 3 Apr. 6/2: He’s [i.e. a dog] not much to patter about.
1860		Hotten Dict. of Modern Sl. etc. (2nd edn).
1867		Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 12 Oct. n.p.: Had they appeared [...] as Billingsgate ‘hawkers’ and patterned romanry [sic] Davis and Leary might have escaped.
1868		Liverpool Mercury 2 Dec. 3/2: To ‘patter’ is a slang term, meaning to speak.
1874		M. Clarke Term of His Natural Life (1897) 268: He wears coloured clothes, and smokes, and doesn’t patter scripture.
1887		Hartlepool Mail 15 Oct. 4/5: Always was a rum ’un to patter. Flash as you like, and artful.
1888–94		‘Walter’ My Secret Life (1966) VIII 1662: A French woman accosted me. — She would give me such pleasure she promised, pattering on.
1895		‘’Arry on Harry’ Punch 24 Aug. 90/2: If you can’t rattle and patter, and ’old up your end like a man [...].
1915		J. Buchan Thirty-Nine Steps (1930) 61: He [...] pattered about his duchesses till the snobbery of the creature turned me sick.
1971		R.D. Pharr S.R.O. (1998) 35: Jimmy didn’t converse. He pattered. His was the monologue of a clever MC.

2. (UK Und.) to stop talking; to abandon an action; to stand still.

1753

J. Poulter Discoveries (1774) 42: Petter [sic] in Cant, stands for a great many Things, as hold your Tongue, let it alone, or stand still, or the like.

3. (UK Und.) to sing on the streets.

1753		J. Poulter Discoveries (1774) 42: I strum and patter; I play on the Dulsmore and sing.
1786		Whole Art of Thieving [as cit. 1753].

4. (UK Und.) to talk in a manner designed to confuse a potential victim of a confidence trick.

1781		G. Parker View of Society II 56: Then my genius begins to patter you.
1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue n.p.: Pattering. [...] talk or palaver in order to amuse one intended to be cheated.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum [as cit. 1785].
1895		J. Caminada Twenty-Five Years of Detective Life I 14: The ‘high-flier,’ or begging-letter imposter would be ‘pattering ’ to the ‘shallow cove’.

5. to put on trial.

a.1790		H.T. Potter New Dict. Cant (1795) n.p.: patter’d tried in a court of justice for felony.
1809		G. Andrewes Dict. Sl. and Cant.
1812		Vaux Vocab. of the Flash Lang.
1835		G. Kent Modern Flash Dict.
1848		Flash Dict. in Sinks of London Laid Open.
c.1850		Duncombe New and Improved Flash Dict.
1859		Matsell Vocabulum 64: ‘The wire was pattered for drawing a skin from a bloke’s poke, [...] and the beak slung him for five stretchers and a moon,’ the pickpocket was tried for stealing a purse from the man’s pocket, [...] and the judge sentenced him for five year [sic] and a month.

6. to talk the cant of thieves, beggars etc; to talk slang; often as patter flash

1827		P. Cunningham New South Wales II 59: I once saw a little urchin not exceeding ten years patter it in evidence to the bench.
1830		W.T. Moncrieff Heart of London III i: You patter, Fitz. – you are a top-slanger.
1834		T. Hood ‘Tylney Hall’ in Works (1862) III 191: Don’t patter slang.
1840		Flash Mirror 20: Miss Cafooselem [...] engages [...] to instruct any young lady to patter slang in such an out-and-out come over me manner, to chaff any Dustman or Chummy, and put the kibosh on him in less than five minutes.
1842		Whip & Satirist of NY & Brooklyn (NY) 1 Jan. n.p.: The young patrician at college can patten [sic] the slang as well as any town blackguard.
1878		C. Hindley Life and Times of James Catnach 133: Rank and beauty learned to patter the slang.
1891		‘’Arry on Arrius’ in Punch 26 Dec. 303/1: The ’Igher Hedgercation means ’savvy’; / you size up the world, patter slang.
1895		C. Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. 56: Patter, to talk in slang.
1912		Bulletin (Sydney) 7 Nov. 38/1: ‘Is he much of an actor?’ / ‘Not much. Pretty fair in Shakspeare. But, Gad, sir! he can’t patter or do a clog dance for sour apples.’.

7. to speechify as a cheapjack does in extolling wares, or a conjurer while performing tricks.

1830		Egan Finish to the Adventures of Tom and Jerry (1889) 119: Jane and Jerry joined the motley group, after the above eloquent specimen of patter-ing it, as it is termed at Bartlemy Fairadministrator.
1850		Fast Man 2:1 n.p.: [Y]ou should hear me patter; I soon get a crowd round me, and then the browns come pouring in.
1861		(con. 1840s–50s) H. Mayhew London Labour and London Poor III 210/2: I was rather backward at touting at first, but [...] could patter like anything before the day was over.
1876		C. Hindley Life and Adventures of a Cheap Jack 118: Jack – was about twelve years old when I took him away from home to travel, and he learned to patter in about six months.
1917		A. Brazil Madcap of the School 86: ‘Tell your fortunes, my pretty ladies?’ pattered one of the Romanys.

8. to sell broadsides, ballads etc. in the streets.

1858		Home News for India 17 Apr. 19/1: The prisoner Benjamin was ‘pattering’ that night, and was using the child for the purpose of exciting compassion.
1861		(con. 1840s–50s) H. Mayhew London Labour and London Poor I 233/1: Any marvel was ‘pattered,’ according to the patterer’s taste and judgment. [Ibid.] IV 323/2: I made a sufficient livelihood by pattering in the streets.

9. (UK Und.) to talk, to speak.

1847		Thackeray Punch’s Prize Novelists: The Stars and Stripes in Burlesques (1903) 227: I can patter Canadian French with the hunters.
1857		T. Hughes Tom Brown’s School-Days (1896) 5: You all patter French more or less, and perhaps German.
1889		‘’Arry in Switzerland’ Punch 5 Dec. in P. Marks (2006) 97: Couldn’t patter her lingo — wus luck! — but I could do the lardy, and smile.
1926		J. Black You Can’t Win (2000) 204: He grabbed the jailer by the arm and began pattering away in Chinook.

10. (Aus. Und.) to beg.

1835		Worcester Herald 26 Dec. 4/3: Patter, to beg.
1882		Sydney Sl. Dict. 10/2: Lame Jack is pattering. He pads Pitt and George streets and the Parks, and touches coves on the blob. He blew on Sam who frisked a lobb and the same day came it on Joe for fencing the prad got on the cross.

11. (Aus.) to inform.

1901

Truth (Sydney) 28 July 2/7: Praps you think the gurls could patter? / But they daresn’t do it, sir; / They would get the sack, & lose there / Graft.

12. to tell tales.

1961

R.A. Norton Through Beatnik Eyeballs 17: Them other sneaky kids would patter on me all the time if I touched them in return for goading me all day.

13. (Scot., also patter up) to talk so as to encourage criminality; to chat up.

1973

(con. mid-1960s) J. Patrick Glasgow Gang Observed 88: At the approved school, Tim admitted that ‘patterin’ up of eleven-, twelve-, and thirteen-year-olds went on. Having been flattered and enticed to steal, these youngsters would then break into shops. [Ibid.] 234: Pa’er up – to chat up, pay court to a young girl.