confab
/ˈkɒnfab
/informal
noun
1An informal private conversation or discussion: the men clustered together for a quick confab...
- She whisked my dish away and then had a quick confab with three colleagues before returning it, confident it was the dish I'd ordered.
- When Roberts was C-in-C he retired to his quarters after an inspection, only to be waited on by senior Indian officers, who wished ‘as private persons to have a confab with the War Lord’.
- They might be the product of his confabs with the management luminaries of the European game at a forum in Geneva a week past on Friday.
1.1North American A meeting or conference of members of a particular group: the annual American Booksellers Association confab...
- They hold endless meetings, planning sessions, conferences, and confabs in which they back pat and self-stroke themselves with awards, plaques, tributes and testimonials.
- The journalists' confab featured discussions on diversity that included benchmark goals for racial and ethnic parity in newsrooms.
- In recent years, however, the confab has garnered attention not just from media but from those activists who feel the G8's policies are heavy handed and undemocratic.
verb (confabs, confabbing, confabbed) [no object]
Engage in informal private conversation: Peter was confabbing with a curly-haired guy...
- Yes folks, Pat Robertson has once again been confabbing with God and he has reported on the 700 Club that God has told him that Bush will win the 2004 election easily.
- Maybe you could personally confab with him.
- Don't miss the part maybe two-thirds of the way through where the Enron guys come out to confab with Arnold before the recall process gets going.
Origin
Early 18th century: abbreviation of confabulation (see confabulate).