twaddle
/ˈtwɒd(ə)l
/informal
noun [mass noun]
Trivial or foolish speech or writing; nonsense: he dismissed the novel as self-indulgent twaddle...
- But technical proficiency does not equal good music, nor does it prevent that music from being boring, from being bloated, self-indulgent twaddle.
- My second reaction was: What a load of self-indulgent twaddle!
- Sick of such self-indulgent twaddle, I found the urge to throw the book across the room was strong.
verb [no object] archaic
Talk or write in a trivial or foolish way: what is that old fellow twaddling about?...
- She then twaddles on a bit about getting him at the Gates of St Peters, sings her own demented versions of My Ding-A-Ling and Devil Woman and gets generally unpleasant.
- He was twaddling on expansively about this and that; Emily didn't know, really; she wasn't listening.
- Please keep twaddling while I press this button which will alert the restraining orderlies of their need to come and bum-rush you.
Derivatives
twaddler
- This country, you may have noticed, is rife with such narrow-brained twaddlers.
- Before his letters came to light in 1815, Fronto had been idealized as the wise counsellor of a philosophic emperor; afterwards an exaggerated reaction dismissed him as a futile twaddler.
- Amid these twaddlers he presents the formidable front of a man with meaning, confident of his cause, and devoted to it with all his faculty.
Origin
Late 18th century: alteration of earlier twattle, of unknown origin.