Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. to attempt the first verbal stages of seduction.

1898		in J. Wright EDD (1905) I 567/2: Chat, to flirt with. Londonderry.
1910		Sun. Times (Perth) 31 July 2nd sect. 12/7: A nine-year-old nipper had been listening to a mob of gutter-sports in the train. ‘What does “chat ’em” mean, dad?’.
1915		C.J. Dennis ‘The Intro’ in Songs of a Sentimental Bloke 19: Oh, ’oly wars! / The sorter look she gimme! Jest becors / I tried to chat ’er.
1922		Healesville & Yarra Glen Guardian (Vic.) 4/4: I chats the skirt for erbout ten minutes.
1938		J. Curtis They Drive by Night 20: It would be nice to chat this tart.
1966		T. Keyes All Night Stand 12: He could chat up a chick and he didn’t mind having it away with some man either.
1975		Sun. Times Mag. 12 Oct. 30: Two CID men enjoying a drink and chatting up the girls.
1989		in G. Tremlett Little Legs 71: I tried to chat her up but couldn’t get on the firm.
1999		Observer Mag. 5 Sept. 33: Gabbing with every passer-by and chatting up giggling young women.
2005		P. Howard Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nightdress 220: I hope you don’t mind me chatting-up your friend.
2005		Jade LB Keisha the Sket (2021) 19: He was 1 peng boi I had been chatin 2 4 tym.
2010		(con. 1973) C. Stella Johnny Porno 112: Thinking about how many women the seventy-year-old had at least chatted up.
2017		T. Spicer Good Girl Stripped Bare 22: Where’s Eric? Ah in the corner, chatting up a dancer.
2023		(con. 1962) J. Ellroy Enchanters 11: Eddie chatted up a Pan Am stew.

2. (also chat off) to inform on, to tell on, to reveal.

1900		Sydney Sportsman (Surry Hills, NSW) 24 Oct. 1/1: This is a kosher paper; everything the other papers smother The Sportsman chats.
1908		Sun. Times (Perth) 11 Oct. 1/1: A divorce that wasn’t is the latest in Leaderville [...] neither party was aware of anything till the private detective chatted the co-re.
1915		Bulletin (Sydney) 5 Aug. 47/1: Out at quod their idea is to keep the numbers apart, so as they won’t contaminate each other. But there’s heaps of chanst for one bloke to chat another.
1923		Smith’s Wkly (Sydney) 11 Aug. 15/4: As the bottle passed round she chats us. ‘In his top inside kick most of it, and a couple of funt in his hlpper’.
1924		(con. WWI) A.G. Pretty Gloss. of Sl. [...] in the A.I.F. 1921–1924 (rev. t/s) n.p.: chat. To tell a person something.
1959		C. MacInnes Absolute Beginners 142: Though I wanted to chat Ma [...] I just couldn’t face opening the whole theme up.
1962		F. Norman Guntz 142: I reckoned it couldn’t do all that much harm to chat the geezer.
1977		C. Hope Ducktails in Gray Theatre Two (1981) 40: Listen Howellsie. Don’t chat us sleg now.
1988		(ref. to WWI) McGill Dict. of Kiwi Sl. 69/1: let me chat you allow me to tell you something, WWI.
1995		Eble Campus Sl. Apr. 2: chat it – a greeting often used to answer the phone or to speak to someone in person: ‘Girl, you better come here and chat it in my ear’.
2003		McGill Reed Dict. of N.Z. Sl. [as cit. 1988].
2011		J.J. Connolly Viva La Madness 178: I’d be upset if I thought you were chatting my business. You gonna keep quiet?
2013		K. Koke ‘Bring Me Down (Intro)’ 🎵 Before you chat off your mouth you better rethink / I made you look small I can make you re-shrink.

3. thus fig., in non-sexual contexts, to seduce with words.

1900		Sydney Sportsman (Surry Hills, NSW) 5 Dec. 1/4: This commission, tale-teller, tear-down, or whatever he may be, chats Fishy the brass is on Kitty Wager at a good price.
1924		C.J. Dennis ‘A Holy War’ in Rose of Spadgers 54: An’ then ’e chats me, with the punkest tale / That ever got a bad man into jail.
1958		F. Norman in Encounter Nov. in Norman’s London (1969) 51: If there’s one thing I don’t look when some bogey chats me up, that’s innocent!
1961		(con. 1920s) J. Sparks Burglar to the Nobility 22: So we chatted him as to what a clever villain he was.
1972		P. Fordham Inside the Und. 88: Possibly chatting him up in his ‘local’.
1985		B. Humphries Traveller’s Tool 113: I’ve been chatted up by the best of them too, from Michael Parkinson to Clive James.
1995		J. Stahl Permanent Midnight 320: My plan was to chat the boy up, tell him [...] what a terrific producer he always was.
2000		G.V. Higgins At End of Day (2001) 40: He [...] thought this place was a promising place to chat up young gunsels.
2015		(con. 1919) C. Fountain Betrayal 84: [H]is station as a former big leaguer gave him entrée to active ballplayers whom he would chat up [...] looking for information that would give him an edge.

4. (Aus.) to scold.

1913		Sport (Adelaide) 14 June 7/1: They Say [...] That Bol S is keeping very quiet since he was chatted about his barman’s medal.
1918		C.J. Dennis ‘Sore Throat’ in Backblock Ballads n.p.: The pale young man he comes to me, / An’ chats me good an’ fair; / ‘That langwidge that you use,’ sez he, / ‘Pollutes the good clean air.’.
1963		R. McGregor-Hastie Compleat Migrant 106: Chat, to: to tell somebody off.

5. (Aus.) to speak to.

1914

Sport (Adelaide) 31 Jan. 4/2: Stipe Hogan has ukased that no jockey must chat anyone when going to the post .

6. (US) to advise, to recommend.

1919

A. Baer Two & Three 26 Apr. [synd. col.] His best dope is never to endorse a note [...] Chaunce also chats us not to carry a bundle by the string if we want to live a hundrd innings .

7. (Aus.) to speak a language.

1933

Sun. Times (Perth) 29 Jan. 45/9: It’s nice to know Latin, it’s nice to know Greek, / Though the Greek in the fishshop can’t chat it.

8. to trick verbally, to ‘con’, to persuade.

1958		F. Norman Bang to Rights 147: They would chat her into selling the daughter to them for the night.
1959		F. Norman Stand on Me 52: I went home and chatted Betty into going down with me.

9. (S.Afr.) to kick.

1963

L.F. Freed Crime in S. Afr. 105: When he ‘chats a guy with a boot in the pan’, it means that he has kicked him in the face.

10. to sing rap lyrics.

1998		Guardian G2 6 Aug. 10: The MC or deejay who chats or raps lyrically.
2005		JME ‘Don’t Chat’ 🎵 Don’t chat crack beats.

11. (UK black) to speak, to state.

1997		‘Q’ Deadmeat 75: Yu ah chat hall dis sense now but ah rememba yu wen yu ah chat nonsense.
2006		G. Malkani Londonstani (2007) 6: Why’d the fuck’d anyone wanna chat like that anyway?
2012		Skepta ‘2+2x2 🎵 Man chatting shit on my timeline, that I don’t like.