Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. the truth, the apposite thing, the subject under discussion.

1784		Thrale Thraliana i 8 Apr. 592: Two honest Tradesmen meeting in the Strand, / One took the other briskly by the Hand; / Hark ye—says he—'tis an odd Story this / About the Crows—I don't know what it is: / Replied his Friend—No! I'm surpriz'd at that, / Where I came from It was the common Chat.
1819		‘One of the Fancy’ Tom Crib’s Memorial to Congress 17: And the chat is that NAP, when he had him in tow, / Found his knowledge-box always the first thing to go.
1862		Trollope Orley Farm 39: Has the gentleman any right to be in this room at all, or has he not? Is he commercial, or is he – miscellaneous? That’s the chat as I take it .
1906		Sun. Times (Perth) 18 Feb. 4/7: That cobber o’ yours is makin’ the pace a bit too solid. unless yer give ’im the chat ’e’ll ’ave ter be shelfed.
1922		Joyce Ulysses 263: That’s the chat.
1965		J.P. Carstairs Concrete Kimono 215: Roderick must have given them ‘the chat’ for they saluted me as if I really had made the Big Time.

2. cheek, impudence.

1838		J. Grant Sketches in London 116: I say, Sir, you hold your chat.
1912		C. McKay ‘Flat-Foot Drill’ in Constab Ballads 13: Shet you’ mout’! A wan no chat!
1988		W. Chen King of the Carnival 51: ‘You giving me plenty chat now,’ Ahamad roared.
2021		Central Cee ‘The Bag’ 🎵 They all got chat on the ’net, real life, I bet they’ll backtrack.

3. information.

1900		Sydney Sportsman (Surry Hills, NSW) 19 Dec. 1/2: The owner [...] went to the boy [i.e. a jockey] and gave him the chat to take hold.
1900–10		Stephens & O’Brien Materials for a Dict. of Aus. Sl. [unpub. ms.] 43: CHAT: thieves chatter – talk: to tell, to warn, to inform [...] ‘I gave him the chat that the “Ds” wanted him.’ [...] The chat may be merely a prearranged signal or gesture. Also in sport ‘the office’.
1906		Sun. Times (Perth) 18 Feb. 4/8: That night I meets Jim, and I gives ’im the chat about what the John told me.

4. verbal skills, fluency, articulacy, the ability to charm a victim with words alone.

1907		Sun. Times (Perth) 18 Aug. 4/7: We’ve been bewitched by widows and by clyners in our ken, / We’ve had the chat from nymphs of every nation.
1910		Bulletin (Sydney) 13 Oct. 19/2: But mind, all the time you’ve got to be excited-like, and giving the chat that there’s stoush close handy.
1936		J. Curtis Gilt Kid 24: I’ll leave the chat to you, being as how you talk better than what I do.
1968		J. Barlow Burden of Proof 3: They were all on at least £40 a week, even the simplest minder with chat employed in East End clubs.
1975		‘P.B. Yuill’ Hazell and the Three-card Trick (1977) 123: Their shoulders played as big a part in their chat as their lips.
1998		G. Burn Happy Like Murderers 46: But they – that is to say he – had a way with the chat. Mouth almighty.

5. terminology, a special language, jargon.

1984

Partridge DSUE (8th edn) 201/1: since ca. 1950.