chat

[chat] /tʃæt/
verb (used without object), chatted, chatting.
1.
to converse in a familiar or informal manner.
2.
Digital Technology.
  1. to participate with others, through the Internet, in a real-time conversation in a chat room by typing one's contributions to the topics under discussion on one's computer and reading others' typed contributions on one's screen.
  2. to engage in such conversation with one other person, often to obtain live tech support or customer service from a vendor's site.
noun
3.
informal conversation:
We had a pleasant chat.
4.
Digital Technology. text-based communication in real time between two users over a network or the Internet.
See also instant messaging, chat room.
5.
any of several small Old World thrushes, especially of the genus Saxicola, having a chattering cry.
6.
yellow-breasted chat.
Verb phrases
7.
chat up, Chiefly British.
  1. to talk flirtatiously with.
  2. to talk to in a friendly, open way.
Origin
1400-50; late Middle English; short for chatter
Related forms
chattable, adjective
Synonyms
1, 3. talk, chitchat, gossip, visit.

Chât.

1.
(especially in Bordeaux wines) Château.
Examples from the web for chat
  • The video chat is an open group area for all my students to talk to each other or me.
  • He will chat before and after games, or while waiting to play, but the talk is always basketball.
  • But beware of mental-health chat rooms, which can be long on sympathy and short on facts.
  • They may get periodic traffic updates along with the news, chat and music from their car radios.
  • Modern kids create new slang for e-mail and chat rooms.
  • Many of us enjoy an occasional bedtime chat with a loved one who is far away.
  • Twilight calls for the woodsy comforts of drinks and a chat around a toasty fire.
  • They told his family he was wanted for a brief chat.
  • Apart from the odd curse, there is not a lot of chat.
  • chat with an expert and learn what scientists around the world are doing to help protect parrots.
British Dictionary definitions for chat

chat1

/tʃæt/
noun
1.
informal conversation or talk conducted in an easy familiar manner
2.
the exchange of messages in an internet or other network chatroom
3.
any Old World songbird of the subfamily Turdinae (thrushes, etc) having a harsh chattering cry See also stonechat, whinchat
4.
any of various North American warblers, such as Icteria virens (yellow-breasted chat)
5.
any of various Australian wrens (family Muscicapidae) of the genus Ephthianura and other genera
verb (intransitive) chats, chatting, chatted
6.
to talk in an easy familiar way
7.
to exchange messages in a chatroom
See also chat up
Word Origin
C16: short for chatter

chat2

/tʃæt/
noun
1.
(archaic or dialect) a catkin, esp a willow catkin
Word Origin
C15: from French chat cat, referring to the furry appearance
Word Origin and History for chat
v.

mid-15c., "talk idly, babble," short for chatter (v.). Meaning "to converse familiarly" is from 1550s. Sense of "flirt with, ingratiate oneself with" (in later use often with up (adv.)) is from 1898. Related: Chatted; chatting.

n.

1520s, "chatter, frivolous talk;" see chat (v.). Meaning "familiar conversation" is from 1570s. Chat show, for what in U.S. is a talk show, attested from 1969. Chat room in the online sense is attested by 1994, from the days when AOL ruled the Web.

Slang definitions & phrases for chat

chat

noun

The capability of exchanging personal messages on a computer network: As you play, you can exchange typedmessages—that'sa featurecalled ''chat'' incomputer lingo—with other players (1980+ Computer)


chat in Technology
chat, messaging
Any system that allows any number of logged-in users to have a typed, real-time, on-line conversation via a network.
The medium of chat is descended from talk, but the terms (and the media) have been distinct since at least the early 1990s. talk is prototypically for a small number of people, generally with no provision for channels. In chat systems, however, there are many channels in which any number of people can talk; and users may send private (one-to-one) messages.
Some early chat systems (in use 1998) include IRC, ICQ and Palace. More recent alternatives include MSN Messenger and Google Talk.
Chat systems have given rise to a distinctive style combining the immediacy of talking with all the precision (and verbosity) that written language entails. It is difficult to communicate inflection, though conventions have arisen to help with this.
The conventions of chat systems include special items of jargon, generally abbreviations meant to save typing, which are not used orally. E.g. BCNU, BBL, BTW, CUL, FWIW, FYA, FYI, IMHO, OT, OTT, TNX, WRT, WTF, WTH, , , BBL, HHOK, NHOH, ROTFL, AFK, b4, TTFN, TTYL, OIC, re.
Much of the chat style is identical to (and probably derived from) Morse code jargon used by ham-radio amateurs since the 1920s, and there is, not surprisingly, some overlap with TDD jargon. Most of the jargon was in use in talk systems. Many of these expressions are also common in Usenet news and electronic mail and some have seeped into popular culture, as with emoticons.
The MUD community uses a mixture of emoticons, a few of the more natural of the old-style talk mode abbreviations, and some of the "social" list above. In general, though, MUDders express a preference for typing things out in full rather than using abbreviations; this may be due to the relative youth of the MUD cultures, which tend to include many touch typists. Abbreviations specific to MUDs include: FOAD, ppl (people), THX (thanks), UOK? (are you OK?).
Some BIFFisms (notably the variant spelling "d00d") and aspects of ASCIIbonics appear to be passing into wider use among some subgroups of MUDders and are already pandemic on chat systems in general.
See also hakspek.
Suck article "Screaming in a Vacuum" (https://suck.com/daily/96/10/23/).
(2006-05-31)