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. |
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 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.
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.
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? |