Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (also pallaber) vi. to talk, to converse.

1751		Smollett Peregrine Pickle (1964) 583: She yawns woundily in her speech, palavering about some foreign part called New Geereusalem.
1772		Bridges Burlesque Homer (3rd edn) 77: But I will now give o’er pallab’ring, / For precious time is lost in jabb’ring.
1780		Dublin Eve Post 15 July n.p.: The governor persuaded him that this was, in the sea-phrase, mere palavering.
1781		‘Poor Jack’ in Bullfinch 200: Why, I heard our good chaplain palaver one day, / ‘Bout souls, heaven, mercy, and such.
1794		W. Godwin Caleb Williams (1966) 178: How smoothly you palavered it over, for all the world, as if you had been as fair as a new-born babe.
1801		C. Dibdin Yngr Song Smith 70: It don’t matter, d’ye see, palavering about the wind’s eye.
1806		G. Colman Yngr John Bull I i: I’ll palaver him.
1820		‘Way of the World’ in Merry Melodist 6: You swagger and palaver and make the folks think, / You are a man of property, and plenty of chink.
1823		National Advocate (N.Y.) 13 Oct. 2/3: [She] palavered him with a story of the pleasures and harmony — the felicity of love, [while picking his pocket].
1846		Jefferson Repub. (Stroudburg, PA) 21 May 1/4: What are you palavering about?
1848		G.W.M. Reynolds Mysteries of London II (2nd series) 394: I don’t see any use in our standing palavering here.
1853		Delhi Sketch Bk 1 Sept. 50/2: They neither would fight nor palaver.
1858		‘A. Pendragon’ Queen of the South 35: Well, what’s the use of palavering?
1861		M.E. Braddon Trail of the Serpent 352: The forrin swell would have time to get to America, while they was a palaverin’ and jawin’ this ’ere humbug.
1880		Bulletin (Sydney) 1 May 4/4: He still manages to ‘palaver’ all day and dance all night.
1881		Newcastle Courant 2 Dec. 6/6: One of us oughter go to the Carsey and palaver Nell as to how things are going.
1884		(con. c.1840) ‘Mark Twain’ Huckleberry Finn 53: Don’t stand there palavering all day.
1896		‘Get Up, Jack! John, Sit Down!’ Lomax & Lomax Amer. Ballads and Folk Songs (1934) 493: When Jack and Joe palavers, O.
1900		Sydney Sportsman (Surry Hills, NSW) 21 Nov. 1/8: After the traditional palavering, [the three-card trick man] found a dupe and cleared him out.
1901		T. Hammond On Board a Whaler 336: You meet the old cuss, Mr. Brown, and be as polite and palaverin’ as yeh know how.
1913		Alaska Citizen 28 July 8/4: A skirt that palavers like a brain-storm with busted steerin’-gear.
1920		Wash. Times (DC) 16 May 44: [cartoon caption] Pa’d Like to Poison a Pair of Palavering Pests at the Play.
1937–84		Partridge DSUE (1984) 850/1: from ca. 1730.
1951		D. Dressler Parole Chief 129: I saw him [...] palaver there [i.e. a lunchroom] with some men.
1976		P. Theroux Family Arsenal 74: Two grubby ones were palavering under Napier.
1986		L. Heinemann Paco’s Story (1987) 45: The kid, eager to palaver, finally asks, ‘What happened after they took you out of that place?’.
1995		Francis-Jackson Official Dancehall Dict. 39: Palaav to hang out; indulge oneself.
2019		P. Baker Fabulosa 296/1: palaver 1. to talk .
2023		R. Milward Man-Eating Typewriter 28: The absurdity of war [...] she constantly screeched and palavered about.

2. vtr. to ask (someone) for something, to beg from, to wheedle out of .

1764		Foote Mayor of Garrat in Works (1799) I 179: Have a good caution that this Master Mug does not cajole you; He is a damned palavering fellow.
1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue n.p.: Pallaver, to flatter, originally an African word for a treaty, talk, or conference.
1804		Sporting Mag. May XXIV 166/2: I knows the lubber that has launched this play; And he’ll palaver you.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum [as cit. 1785].
1812		Spirit of Irish Wit 220: I shall slabber and palaver ye, and comeMother Delaney over ye, who had a tongue that would carney over the very devil himslf.
1832		Currency Lad (Sydney) 3 Nov. 4/2: I couldn’t make play in my togs, or palaver any of the passengers to lend me a fist.
1835		‘Rampant Moll Was A Rum Old Mot’ Secret Songster 5: She palaver’d avay, but ’twas useless to say, / For guilty she soon vas found.
1837		Thackeray Yellowplush Papers in Works III (1898) 345: That’s the rale undoubted thruth; and it’s only to keep you out of litherary life that he’s palavering you in this way.
1852		Kendal Mercury 14 Feb. 3/3: The skipper and other members of the vagabond fraternity are ‘palavering the flats for balsam’ (humbugging the people for the coppers).
1859		Hotten Dict. of Modern Sl. etc. 71: palaver to ask, or talk ? not deceitfully, as the term usually signifies; ‘palaver to his nibs for a shant of bivvy,’ ask the master for a quart of beer. In this sense used by Tramps.
1863		C. Reade Hard Cash II 132: I’m not to be trifled with: I am not to be palarvered.
1873		Sl. Dict.
1879		C.J. Kickham Knocknagow 90: Mammas manoeuvred for him; papas palavered him; daughters exhausted all their arts and their patience to capture him.
1885		Bulletin (Sydney) 4 Apr. 10/3: The lodger stoutly denied stealing the stout, but frankly admitted having transferred it from glass to pigskin, with results beneficial to himself and he hoped satisfactory to the owner. The groggist, however, was not to be palavered over in this way, and he at once sternly demanded payment in full for the vanished liquor.
1894		Truth (Sydney) 24 June 2/1: Justin McCarthy, instead of palavering the miserable Roseberyites, would be very much better employed [etc.].
1900		Ade More Fables in Sl. (1960) 147: The Jurors heard how the Agent palavered the Hay-Seed.
1908		L.A. Herald 26 Apr. 62/3: It was suggested that they should palaver him with a view to the mate being landed among them.

3. to talk insincerely.

1867		Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 7 Sept. n.p.: Eevrything that they have done for the last three years has been what is called ‘put up’ from within. All that they had to do was to go in and ‘palaver’ a moment.
1895		Courier (Lincoln, NE) 1 June 3/2: Give me truth and candor [...] in preference to [a] palavering promise that purposes no fulfillment.
1919		Iron Co. Record (Cedar City, UT) 14 Mar. 4/2: [He] has not got over his early training to pander and palaver to what he considers the gentry.

4. (UK black) to go around, to wander about.

1999

(con. 1979–80) A. Wheatle Brixton Rock (2004) 7: ‘If me hear that you’re palavering with any gal again, I will sack you so quick.’ [Ibid.] 157: Palavering about in the dead of night nicking bits of wood.