Green’s Dictionary of Slang

to gossip; also as n. (see cite 1525).

1499		The rote or myrour of consolacyon n.p.: The yonge childe whan it is put fyrste to lernynge [wants] to pycke strawes & to clatter to his felawes than to lerne the lesson.
1506		P. Gringoire The castell of laboure n.p.: Howe he of thynges past dyd clatter / Many a newe tale to me he sayde / He had well lerned for to patter / Of thynges to come fast dyd he chatter.
1523		Skelton Colyn Cloute (1550) Ai: He prates and he patters, He clytters and he clatters.
1525		J. Rastell Of gentylnes and nobylyte n.p.: Nowhere is bybbyll babbyll clytter clatter I hard neuer of so folysh a matter [...] Contend nor argu neuer in no matter / wt hym that is full of words and clatter.
1533		J. Heywood Pardoner and Friar Aiv: Mary what standest thou there all day clatterrynge.
c.1535		R. Copland Hye way to the Spyttel House Ciiii: They wyl medle in euery mans matter And of other folkes dedes dooth alway clatter.
1540		D. Lyndsay Satyre of Thrie Estaits (1604) 26: Thow can richt weil crak and clatter.
1542		The maydens dreme compyled n.p.: For in moche clatter, many lyes are dyscharged.
1553		Preceptes of Cato n.p.: A mery companion, that can talke and clatter.
1566		L. Apuleius The. xi. bookes of the Golden asse [trans.] 54: This the curious Gull did clatter in the eares of Venus.
1575-83		‘Bashe Libel’ in May & Bryson Verse Libel 82: It is a knave’s toung every way: / To prate and to clatter, / To lye and to flatter.
1589		B. Filippe The counsellor [trans.] 123: [T]hey alleage forcible reasons, or clatter out a heape of vaine arguments.
1597		P. Lowe The whole course of chirurgerie n.p.: [E]ating do make a man quiet and drink causes him clatter.
1603		R. Rollock Lectures vpon the Epistle of Paul to the Colossians 192: [A]all this vaine talke, and idle words, that defile the care, and fill it with clattering and glauering from morning to euening.
1606		N. Baxter Sir Philip Sydneys ouránia n.p.: And in a Pulpit doost but prate and clatter, / Without Diuinitie, Methode, or matter?
1614		T. Ravenscroft A briefe discourse n.p.: Let Merry goe loose it makes no matter, / for Cleanly sometimes she will clatter.
1881		T. Carlyle in Symons Selected Works and Reminiscences 520: He had the most entire and open contempt for all idle tattle, what he called ‘clatter’.
1909		C. Nicol ‘The Neebours on Oor Stair’ Poems 82: That Peg M’Snuffle tried fu’ fain / Tae open up some wranglin’ clatter / Aboot the neebours on the stair.
1928		L. Mackay My Oul’ Town 101: I sit and talk to the Kettle, and it never tells. No, it never clatters.
1939		P. Gallagher My Story n.p.: Every one of the Committee [...] would tell it to their women and they would clatter it all over the parish [BS].
1946		(con. 1914) B. Marshall George Brown’s Schooldays 177: Oh, Jane, shut your silly clattering trap.