Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(Irish) to gossip.

1523		Skelton Colyn Cloute (1550) Ai: He prates and he patters, He clytters and he clatters.
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.
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.
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.