prattlern.

1567 J. Maplet Greene Forest f. 90 One knaue or pratler will alwayes accompanie another.

1579 T. Salter Mirrhor of Modestie sig. Ci To breake of his talke, [she] sodainly saied with a loude voice: Oh a voide, a voide from before my face and presence this bolde prattler.

1583 G. Babington Very Fruitfull Expos. Commaundem. ix. 483 We doe not discountenance the whispering carper, we doe not eschewe the reportes of peeuish pratlers.

1606 J. Hind Eliosto Libidinoso 72 Bragge not of thy gaines, lest by boasting of thy bootie, thou heereafter be depriued of thy expectation, and in the meane time bee deemed a pratler.

a1642 J. Suckling Sad One (1659) iv. ii. 27 Alas an ordinary Brain, Talks and talks it's true, But speaks more then he is, believe't, Betwixt you and I a meer pratler.

1680 T. Otway Orphan iii. 36 Go you're an Idle Pratler.

1718 C. Molloy Coquet ii. 33 Thou vain impertinent little Pratler, hold thy Tongue, I can hear no more on't.

1742 H. Fielding Joseph Andrews II. iv. viii. 236 My little Prattler, the Darling and Comfort of my old Age. View more context for this quotation

?1784 J. Stansbury in R. Brown & D. Bennett Anthol Canad. Lit. in Eng. (1982) I. 23 Oh! how your heart would bleed to view Six pretty prattlers like your own, Expos'd to every wind that blew.

a1807 W. Wordsworth Prelude (1959) iv. 118 Children of the neigbourhood, Now rosy prattlers.

1875 B. Jowett in tr. Plato Dialogues (ed. 2) III. 140 Thousands of tragedy-making prattlers.

1890 Science 28 Nov. 305/1 The mother can easily record the development of language in her cunning little prattler.

1926 Amer. Speech 2 133/2 ‘Good-bye, you-all’, with a smiling glance around the room, is for every one, from prattler to grand'am.

1952 W. Plomer Museum Pieces (1961) xxvi. 199 As she was in the ordinary way anything but a prattler, these commonplace utterances required a real effort on her part.

1998 Miami Herald (Nexis) 15 May 7 g Kayley has been endowed with that cliched and annoying movie-female trait: She is a nonstop prattler.