(informal, intransitive) To speak at length on a trivial subject.
When people witter on about pollution nowadays, I think of the days when going to school in broad daylight, I couldn't see my feet in the London smog. I had to feel the kerb with my front bike wheel. 2022 February 23, Benedict le Vay, “Part of rail's past... present... and future”, in RAIL, number 951, page 55:
She got home and started wittering about some religious cult she’d just heard about.
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witters
Number=Sing, Person=3, Tense=Pres
lexicographic
wittered
Tense=Past, VerbForm=Part
lexicographic
wittered
Tense=Past
lexicographic
wittering
Tense=Pres, VerbForm=Part
lexicographic
Translations (3)
cs žvanit (to speak at length on a trivial subject) · mi tarawhete (to speak at length on a trivial subject) · cs tlachat (to speak at length on a trivial subject)
From Middle English witter, witer, of North Germanic origin, from Old Norse vitr (“wise, knowing”), from Proto-Germanic *witraz (“knowing”), from Proto-Indo-European *weyd- (“to know”). Cognate with Icelandic vitur (“wise”). More at wit, wis.
From Middle English witteren, witeren, of North Germanic origin, from Old Norse vitra (“to make wise, make sure”), from Proto-Germanic *witrōną (“to make wise”), from Proto-Indo-European *weyd- (“to know”). Cognate with Icelandic vitra (“to make wise, make certain”), Icelandic vitur (“wise”). More at wit, wis.
Meanings
(dialectal, intransitive, obsolete) to make sure, inform, or declare.