talk v.
1. (Aus.) of a horse, breathing heavily.
![]() | Aus. Sl. Dict. 67: [A] broken-winded horse, often termed ‘talking’ by turfites. |
2. (UK Und.) to confess or turn informer to the police or similar authority.
![]() | Keys to Crookdom 420: Talk. See squeal, beef, spiel, chew rag . | |
![]() | (con. WW1) Soldier’s Manuscript 74: . I guess both sides were forced to pretty rough tactics to make [prisoners] talk. | |
![]() | Sharpe of the Flying Squad 157: Very, very seldom will a woman of the Underworld ‘talk.’. | |
![]() | Night Stick 42: We never did find out who killed him. Higgins held fast to his warped underworld code. He wouldn’t talk. | |
![]() | Long Wait (1954) 170: The guy talked with a little persuasion. | |
![]() | Will 271: The prosecution countered by telling John Dean that I had ‘talked.’ It was [...] an old trick, but Dean, who was weak as well as inexperienced, fell for it. | |
![]() | Indep. Rev. 10 Nov. 6: Coyle [...] who, to protect himself against being sent up for a second stretch, talks to the cops. | |
![]() | Call Girl Confidential 177: Jonas Gayner, known as ‘John Doe,’ was talking like a tattletale. He even gave my name up. |
3. (US black/campus, also talk to/with) to have a relationship with someone, to date.
[ | ![]() | Venus’ Miscellany (NY) 31 Jan. n.p.: ‘Still harping on my daughters,’ as an old woman said to a young man she caught talking vigorously to Annie in her chamber]. |
![]() | Down in the Holler 108: It is quite correct to remark that a young man is talkin’ or settin’ up or sparkin’ or courtin’, since all these terms may imply an intention to marry. | |
![]() | Beale Black & Blue 163: And then one of the girls, she didn’t talk like John thought she was going to talk, and so he got mad. | |
![]() | Sl. U. 33: be talking with to be going with, to be dating steadily. | |
![]() | Campus Sl. Apr. 8: talk to – date: ‘I’m talking to the guy in the blue shirt.’. | |
![]() | Campus Sl. Fall 8: talk – to converse with someone; to date someone; to have sex. ‘You still date James?’ ‘Yeah, we still talk.’. | |
![]() | UNC-CH Campus Sl. Spring 2014 Fall 7: TALK — be in the early stages of a romantic relationship; date casually: ‘Mike and Susan have been talking since they met at my birthday party’. | (ed.)
4. (US) of jazz musicians, to play at a highly emotive level.
![]() | Wicked Streets (2025) 6: ‘They got a five-piece combo that can really talk. Wait’ll you hear those boys cut loose’. |
5. (US prison) having a relationship with another person of the same sex while in prison [euph.].
![]() | Study of a Women’s Prison 208: Talking. Refers to someone engaged in a homosexual act. | Gloss. in
SE in slang uses
In compounds
(US) a psychoanalyst, a psychotherapist.
![]() | Homeboy 326: I told em Mom was a little light in her huaraches and was seeing a talk doctor. |
(US) the mouth.
![]() | You Can Search Me 94: Dodo won’t ever open her talk-trap. | |
![]() | Beat It 63: I was on to the Count Cheese von Cheese the moment he opened his talk-trap. |
In phrases
(US) all theory and no practice, all proposals and no concrete results.
![]() | Salmagundi (1860) 141: The people, in fact, seem to be somewhat conscious of this propensity to talk, by which they are characterized, and have a favorite proverb on the subject, viz. ‘all talk and no cider.’. | |
![]() | Life and Adventures of Dr Dodimus Duckworth II 71: I think it’s all talk and no cider. | |
![]() | Cork Examiner 28 Feb. 4/3: The Pennyslvania House of Representatives is discussing ways and means of redeeming the honour of the state [...] We hope it will not be ‘all talk and no cider’. | |
![]() | Diary 50: Fine stories are cold comfort, when it is as they say ‘All talk and no cider.’. | |
![]() | Londonderry Standard 26 June 1/2: The present [American] generation raised on hot cakes and street fixins [...] is all talk and no cider. | |
![]() | N&Q Ser. 2 V 233: All talk and no cider. This expression is applied to persons whose performances fall far short of their promises. | |
[ | ![]() | Artemus Ward: Complete Works Pt II Ch. 5: What we want is more cider and less talk]. |
![]() | Americanisms 591: All talk and no cider, which is but another version of Vox et praeterea nihil. It is stated to have originated at a party in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, which had assembled to drink a barrel of superior cider; but politics being introduced, speeches were made, and discussion ensued, till some malcontents withdrew on the plea that it was a trap into which they had been lured, politics and not pleasure being the purpose of the meeting, or, as they called it, All talk and no cider! | |
![]() | Nebraska State Jrnl (Lincoln, NE) 31 Dec. 6/2: It is and has been all talk — cheap talk and no cider. | |
![]() | New Dict. Americanisms. | |
![]() | Knoxville jrnl (TN) 24 Sept. 8/6: Some of the would-be merry-makers [...] went home declaring that it had been a party with ‘all talk and no cider’. | |
![]() | Brooklyn Citizen (NY) 16 Mar. 8/7: In England it is ‘much cry and little wool’; in the USA it is all talk and no cider. | |
![]() | Eve. News Harrisburg, PA) 27 Jan. 1/6: Tokyo radio said the the results of the meeting between [the allies] were ‘all talk and no cider’. |
an excuse for any excessive talk or actions when drunk, either at the time or when sober on reflection; thus n. beer talk.
![]() | West Australian (Perth) 25 Aug. 2/6: He would call me all the lurid names he could think of, but i paid no attention, It was only beer talk. | |
![]() | Bulletin (Sydney) 1 Oct. 44/1: Jerry did not forget that it was whisky talking – his whisky – and he let it pass in the interests of business. | |
![]() | Sport (Adelaide) 21 Feb. 10/4: Roy C. was looking for biff Saturday, but ‘Sport’ reckons it was only a butcher of lemonade and a fag butt that was talking . | |
![]() | Ulysses 708: Paying his compliments the Bushmills whisky talking of course. | |
![]() | Gangster Stories Dec. 🌐 Says that some flatty tipped him off that they always keep a lotta loose cash in that front office [...] Course it was only the booze talkin’, but —. | ‘Guns of Gangland’|
![]() | Ehinelander Dly News (WI) 7 May 2/1: He admitted he had used ‘some language that wasn’t quite fot for a public place’ explainging that ‘it was the beer talking’. | |
![]() | Long Day’s Journey into Night Act III: Don’t know what made me – booze talking. | |
![]() | Hot Gold I ii: Now, Don, stow that. It’s the beer talking. | |
![]() | Men from the Boys (1967) 11: When I wanted sleep some joker’s whiskey had to start talking. | |
![]() | Word for Word 71: I know you. It’s just the beer talking. | |
![]() | (con. WWII) And Then We Heard The Thunder (1964) 95: Your whiskey must be talking to you. | |
![]() | Six-Eleven (1966) 230: Just the booze talking. | |
![]() | Down These Mean Streets (1970) 112: Trina kept up the yak. It was the drinks talking and I got warmer and warmer. | |
![]() | Burn 146: Balls. He’ll forget by morning. It’s the grog talking. | |
![]() | Muvver Tongue 61: The saying ‘It’s the beer talking’ is given wrongly by Partridge. He has it as a public-house jocosity when somebody farts; in fact Cockneys say it about belligerence or bravado shown by a person who is half-cut. | |
![]() | Sydney Morn. Herald 30 Dec. 45/2: If you ask me, this whole thing was started in a pub. It’s the beer talking. | |
![]() | Catching Up with Hist. 35: It’s whisky talking [...] I’m full of windy sentiment. | ‘Reader I Never Married Her’|
![]() | Davey Darling 90: He refilled his glass. It was the booze talking again. | |
![]() | ‘Mouthbreather’ in ThugLit Aug. [ebook] She was screaming, cursing [...] it wasn't really her saying these things, just the booze talking. | |
![]() | Burlington Free Press (VT) 5 Aug. A13/2: Want to hear more? You can subscribe to ‘It’s the Beer Talking’ for free. | |
![]() | Broken 16: ‘Was that Jimmy McNabb being nice?’ [...] ‘It’s the booze talking’. | ‘Broken’ in|
![]() | Stoning 235: It [i.e. an allegation] might just have been the gin talking. |
a phr. stating that the speaker is (finally) dealing with pertinent topics or talking to some purpose.
![]() | Wkly Echo (Lake Charles, LA) 2 Dec. 4/1: It is a good thing to be a Government official. Now you’re talking! | |
![]() | Longford Jrnl 18 Jan. 3/1: How many heads did that gentleman have? ‘Three!’ Now you’re talking. | |
![]() | Bread-Winners (1884) 142: Exactly! Now you’re talkin’. | |
![]() | S. Wales Echo 7 Aug. 4/5: ‘Now you’re talking, mister’. | |
![]() | Dly Gaz. for Middlesborough 8 Apr. 4/1: ‘Oh, now you’re talking!’. | |
![]() | Black Mask (1992) 234: ‘Now you’re talking!’ I cried, recovering my spirits. | |
![]() | Little Nemo in Slumberland [comic strip] ‘Please let them go. Just this once.’ ‘Now you’re talking!’. | |
![]() | Aerbut Paerks, of Baernegum 3: ‘Well, will yer ’ave a drink?’ ’e says. ‘Now yo’me a torkin,’ says feyther. | |
![]() | Nigger Heaven 120: Great! cried Dick. Now you’re talking. | |
![]() | Murphy (1963) 44: ‘Now you are talking,’ said Wylie. | |
![]() | Long Day’s Journey into Night Act III: tyrone: Will you join me in a drink? edmund: Ah! Now you’re talking! | |
![]() | Cactus Village 61: ‘Oh, now you is talkin’!’ someone said. | |
![]() | Jeeves in the Offing 50: Ah, now you’re talking. That’s important. | |
![]() | Big Easy 14: ‘Now you’re talking,’ Delaverne said. | |
![]() | Only Fools and Horses [TV script] Ah, well, now you’re talking! I’ll take that. | ‘Go West Young Man’|
![]() | It Was An Accident 225: ‘Get the hired help in for bits of work up our borough?’ ‘Now you’re talking.’. | |
![]() | Keepers of Truth 37: Ed smacked his lips and winked at me. ‘Now you’re talking.’. |
see also under relevant n. or adj.
(N.Z.) to be drunk.
![]() | Reed Dict. of N.Z. Sl. |
to say unpleasant things.
![]() | Le Slang. |
(Scot.) drunk.
![]() | True Drunkard’s Delight 225: Our tippler may [...] have been talking to Jamie Moore. |
to answer, to speak up.
![]() | High Window 109: The voice was a harsh low whisper. It was a harsh low whisper I had heard before. ‘All right,’ I said. ‘Talk it up whoever you are. Whose pocket have I got my hand in now?’. |
to talk in an affected, supposedly ‘classy’ manner.
![]() | Bang To Rights 130: They are terrabley terrabley precious and they talk like pound notes. |
(US black) to abuse verbally, to gossip maliciously.
![]() | Poet X 28: Keep talking mess. I’m gonna do more than pinch you. | |
![]() | Word Is Bone [ebook] You think I ain’t heard Augustine talking mess about you in the bar? |
(UK/US black) to slander.
![]() | Scorpions 149: ‘If it wasn’t for people talking on Randy—big-mouth people like you—he wouldn’t even be in jail today’ . | |
![]() | 🎵 Talk on my name get touched. | ‘Teddy Bruckshot’
to talk incessantly.
![]() | Bell’s Life in Sydney 4 Mar. 2/5: We have heard of ‘talking a leg off a tin pot‘ — ‘the fifth wheel off a coach’ — ‘a hole through a man's coat,’ and so forth, but never [...] ‘to swear a hole through an iron door’. | |
![]() | Bell’s Life in Sydney 10 Nov. Sept. 3/3: Talk of swearing the leg off an iron pot, why Patrick would have frightened the pistons out of every steamer belonging to the United Kingdom. | |
![]() | Bell’s Life in Sydney 1 Oct. 3/1: They promised me they’d swear a hole through a gatepost for me. | |
![]() | Sheffield Gloss. 63: It is said of a very garrulous person that he would talk a dog’s leg off. | |
![]() | Tinted Venus 203: But if he was to talk his head off, he would never persuade me [...] that he’s not been playing double. | |
![]() | ‘The Heart of Darkness’ in Blackwood’s Mag. Mar. 502/1: I stuck to him, and talked and talked, till at last got afraid I would talk the hind-leg off his favourite dog. | |
![]() | Mahn’s Mag. 2 632: Give the ordinary man a chance and he'll talk his head off. | |
![]() | Bulletin (Sydney) 20 Oct. 26/2: Jeff, this fellow Johnson likes to kid when he’s fighting, and he’ll talk his head off if there’s anyone to talk to. | |
![]() | Bulletin (Sydney) 20 Oct. 26/2: Jeff, this fellow Johnson likes to kid when he’s fighting, and he’ll talk his head off if there’s anyone to talk to. | |
![]() | Ogden Standard (UT) 22 May 3/2: David could flirt his head off but [...] her governess turned blue if Gloria as much as mentioned a lover in a novel. | |
![]() | Sailor Beware! II ii: A cave-man — not a sap that talks their leg off. | |
![]() | (con. 1920s) Big Money in USA (1966) 795: Before he knew it he was talking his head off. | |
![]() | World So Wide 105: You may find a lot of stuck-up highbrows here, always gassing their heads off. | |
![]() | Black City 36: He could talk the leg off a pot, all right. | |
![]() | Bold Saboteurs (1971) 232: Don’t go gabbing your little head off with the other boys. | |
![]() | One Day of the Year (1977) I i: He can talk his leg off an iron pot. | |
![]() | There Must Be a Pony! 29: I talked my head off, and I was even getting laughs. | |
![]() | Last Exit to Brooklyn 33: They getya up there and shoot somethin inya and youll talk ya ass off. | |
![]() | Boesman and Lena Act I: I say! Ou Lena’s talking her head off tonight. | |
![]() | Outcasts of Foolgarah (1975) 144: No chance to have a theoretical discussion with this ratbag talking his head off. | |
![]() | Ladies’ Man (1985) 7: You name it, I read it, and I could talk your ass off about it too. |
to talk nonsense (cf. talk out of one’s arsehole under arsehole n.).
![]() | Charlie Simpson’s Apocalypse 20: He wasn’t talking out of his ass. He’d gone through those riots and shit and really seen it. | |
![]() | Homelands 55: Ach, Scheiss, Catherine, now you are really talking out of your ass. | |
![]() | Double Fault 217: You’re talking out of your ass, Willy. | |
![]() | Perfect 205: You’re talking out of your ass instead of doing your job. | |
![]() | (con. 1973) Johnny Porno 101: Now you’re talking out of your ass. |
to tell tales, to talk unguardedly.
![]() | Memoirs I 411: Fanny went on to say, that somebody told him what Sophia said, on this subject, and, Deerhurst, having accused her of circulating these stories out of school, asked her, if he was not remarkably nice in his person? | |
![]() | Job 257: ‘I guess I hadn’t better tell no tales outa school on little old Eddie Schwirtz, eh?’. | |
![]() | Shadow of the Plantation 172: ‘Listen, I’m gonna talk but I ain’t gonna say nothing out of school’. | |
![]() | ‘Chateau Marmont’ at Movieline.com 🌐 And no one on the benevolently tolerant staff of Chateau Marmont talks out of school about their guests no matter what the guests do. |
to change one’s mind, to contradict an earlier statement.
![]() | Spirit of the Times 26 Jan. (N.Y.) 581: When you’ve hearn me through you’ll talk tother side of your mouth. | ‘Mike Hooter’s Bar Story’|
![]() | White Moll 178: ‘When I do,’ she said complacently, ‘mabbe youse’ll smile out of de other corner of dat mouth of yers!’. | |
![]() | Scene (1996) 6: They’ll be talkin outa the other side of their mouths after tonight. |
to talk nonsense.
![]() | Hip-Hop Connection Dec. 27: You’re talking out the wrong end. |
to talk in double entendres.
![]() | Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue ms. additions n.p.: To talk Packthread, indecent language well wrapt up. | |
, | ![]() | Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue (2nd, 3rd edn) n.p.: To talk packthread; to use indecent language well wrapt up. |
![]() | Lex. Balatronicum. |
(mainly Aus.) to speak in an affectionate, friendly manner.
![]() | ‘Meeting Old Mates’ in Roderick (1972) 166: You don’t want to ‘talk pretty’ to them, and listen to their wishy-washy nonsense. | |
![]() | Marvel 23 Dec. 564: I’ll talk pretty to ’em till yer come back. | |
![]() | Bulletin (Sydney) 31 Oct. 13/2: He had talked pretty at a parsonical pow-wow about brotherly conviviality, and churchmen making friends over a pipe. | |
![]() | Who Live In Shadow (1960) 107: Me, I don’t have to talk pretty through my mouth. My fists talk pretty. |
(US prison) to talk disrespectfully, to talk ‘clever’.
![]() | Our Mr Wrenn (1936) 110: My aged parent calls it ‘talking too much and not saying anything.’ ‘Why,’ he exclaimed, ‘it’s kind of talking sideways.’. | |
![]() | (con. 1998–2000) You Got Nothing Coming 40: You talkin’ sideways, dawg, ’cause I don’t need no fuckin’ fish leaking outta the side of their neck on my shit. |
see under ear n.1
(orig. US) to talk incessantly at someone.
![]() | Working Bullocks 13: He did not want women, ‘jawrin’ his head off’ in the cab of the engine. | |
![]() | World to Win 28: He’ll nail us again and talk our heads off. |
to talk very fast and unintelligibly.
![]() | Tramp at Anchor 185: Talked thirty bob to the pound; been a university professor or something like that. |
(Aus.) to talk nonsense.
![]() | ‘Roll Up at Talbragar’ in Roderick (1972) 754: Watcher talkin’ about, Jim? [...] Yer talkin’ through yer socks. |
to talk nonsense.
![]() | Jungle Kids (1967) 34: I thought Turk was just hopped and talking through the top of his skull. | ‘Vicious Circle’ in
(Aus.) to urinate.
![]() | Adventures of the Honey Badger [ebook] VITAL AUSSIE VERNACULAR Urinating: 1. To syphon the python 2. Having a snake’s hiss 3. A shot at the porcelain 4. Talking to a man about a horse. |
of women, to talk smut.
![]() | Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue ms. additions n.p.: Toll Tawdrum. to Talk Tol [sic] Tawdrum, a term used by Ladies to signify talking a little Loosely, making use of Double-entendres. |
(US) to perform cunnilingus.
![]() | Underground Dict. (1972). | |
![]() | ‘Be A Cunning Linguist’ in Maxim Feb. 🌐 Talk to the canoe driver: ‘I wanted to explore Venice,’ Jarrod said forlornly, ‘but I spent most of the trip just talking to the canoe driver.’. |
to talk in a fluent, persuasive manner.
![]() | If He Hollers 132: ‘Now come on, Mistah Alligator, and talk. You was talking up a breeze a while ago’. | |
![]() | On the Waterfront (1964) 14: He can talk up a breeze like That matter to which you have reference to which and stuff like that. |
(US) to talk loudly, at length and impressively.
![]() | N.Y. Age 12 Dec. 7/1: Doris West [...] was jiving Eddie Parkus up a storm and he liked it. | ‘Truckin ’round Brooklyn’ in|
![]() | (con. 1944) Gallery (1948) 136: I’m not good for much of anything, Rhoda once said, except to talk up a storm. | |
![]() | End as a Man (1952) 35: That meant eight more licks [...] so the freshman began to slobber like hell, just begging up a storm. saying it’d kill him. | |
![]() | (con. 1948) Flee the Angry Strangers 454: You talk up a storm [...] about the damn big hats. |
(US black) to threaten to leave.
![]() | Waiters 272: Walking out — that’s jus’ a lotta talk. What they call down home talkin’ up at the big gate. |
a use of SE talking with the word ‘about’ unstated, implying not so much person-to-person communication, but as a way of emphasizing the importance and immediacy of the topic in hand, e.g. we’re talking telephone numbers, this will be a very large sum of money.
![]() | Blue Movie (1974) 75: Now you guys are talking box office! | |
![]() | Life Its Ownself 119: ‘We’re not talking Mondo Endo here. We’re talking Johns Hopkins, baby. We’re talking Houston Medical. We’re talking Zurich!’ . | |
![]() | Joe Bob Goes to the Drive-In 89: When we’re talking Halloween, we’re talking all-time classic of the drive-in screen. We’re talking the original Jamie Lee Curtis creepola-with-a-butcher-knife [...] We’re talking a movie where anybody can die at any time. | |
![]() | Skin Tight 202: I’m talking TV, Dr Frankenstein. | |
![]() | You Gotta Play Hurt 166: I’m talking Walnut City, baby. The Big Pecan, n’est-ce pas?’. | |
![]() | Yes We have No 183: We’re talking heavy investment here. | |
![]() | Layer Cake 116: That’s a lotta pills. You know we’re talkin pennies. | |
![]() | Pound for Pound 86: We ain’t talkin fender-bender, right? |