talk definition

English talk definition

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation, MLE) enPR: tôk IPA^(key): /tɔːk/
• (US) IPA^(key): /tɔk/
  • (cot–caught merger, northern cities vowel shift) enPR: tŏk IPA^(key): /tɑk/, /täːk/
  • (AAVE) IPA^(key): /tɔʊ̯k/
• (General Australian, New Zealand, MLE) IPA^(key): /toːk/

• Audio (UK) – to talk

  (file)

• Audio (US) (cot-caught merged)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɔːk
• Homophones: torc, torq, torque (non-rhotic accents only), tock (in accents with the cot-caught merger)

Etymology 1

From Middle English talken, talkien, from Old English tealcian (“to talk, chat”), from Proto-Germanic *talkōną (“to talk, chatter”), frequentative form of Proto-Germanic *talōną (“to count, recount, tell”), from Proto-Indo-European *dol-, *del- (“to aim, calculate, adjust, count”), equivalent to tell + -k. Cognate with Scots talk (“to talk”), Low German taalken (“to talk”). Related also to Danish tale (“to talk, speak”), Swedish tala (“to talk, speak, say, chatter”), Icelandic tala (“to talk”), Old English talian (“to count, calculate, reckon, account, consider, think, esteem, value; argue; tell, relate; impute, assign”). More at tale. Despite the surface similarity, unrelated to Proto-Indo-European *telkʷ- (“to talk”), which is the source of loquacious.

Alternative forms

• taulke (obsolete)

Verb

talk (third-person singular simple present talks, present participle talking, simple past and past participle talked)

1. (intransitive) To communicate, usually by means of speech.
   • c. 1596–1598 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act I, scene iii], page 166:

     I will buy with you, sell with you, talk with you, walk with you, and so following, but I will not eat with you.

   • 1913, Joseph C. Lincoln, chapter 4, in Mr. Pratt's Patients, page 99:

     Then he commenced to talk, really talk. and inside of two flaps of a herring's fin he had me mesmerized, like Eben Holt's boy at the town hall show. He talked about the ills of humanity, and the glories of health and Nature and service and land knows what all. […] It was a chance he was offering me, a wonderful, eighteen carat, solid gold chance.

   • 1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 5, in The China Governess‎^[1]:

     Mr. Campion appeared suitably impressed and she warmed to him. He was very easy to talk to with those long clown lines in his pale face, a natural goon, born rather too early she suspected.

   • 2016, VOA Learning English (public domain)

     Let’s go to my office and talk. ― I like to talk with you, Ms. Weaver.

     Audio (US)

     (file)

   Let's sit down and talk.

   Although I don't speak Chinese I managed to talk with the villagers using signs and gestures.

2. (transitive, informal) To discuss; to talk about.

   They sat down to talk business.

   That's enough about work, let's talk holidays!

3. (transitive) To speak (a certain language).

   We talk French sometimes.

4. (transitive, informal, chiefly used in progressive tenses) Used to emphasise the importance, size, complexity etc. of the thing mentioned.

   Are you interested in the job? They're talking big money.

   We're not talking rocket science here: it should be easy.

5. (intransitive, slang) To confess, especially implicating others.

   Suppose he talks?

   She can be relied upon not to talk.

   They tried to make me talk.

6. (intransitive) To criticize someone for something of which one is guilty oneself.

   I am not the one to talk.

   She is a fine one to talk.

   You should talk.

   Look who's talking.

7. (intransitive) To gossip; to create scandal.
   • 1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter XXV, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, OCLC 4293071, page 203:

     “ […]  They talk of you as if you were Croesus—and I expect the beggars sponge on you unconscionably.” And Vickers launched forth into a tirade very different from his platform utterances. He spoke with extreme contempt of the dense stupidity exhibited on all occasions by the working classes.

   People will talk.

   Aren't you afraid the neighbours will talk?

8. (informal, chiefly used in progressive tenses) To influence someone to express something, especially a particular stance or viewpoint or in a particular manner.

   You're only sticking up for her because you like her; that's your penis talking.

   That's not like you at all, Jared. The drugs are talking. Snap out of it!

Conjugation

Synonyms

• See Thesaurus:talk

Coordinate terms

• listen

Derived terms

Translations

Etymology 2

From Middle English talk, talke (“conversation; discourse”), from the verb (see above).

Noun

talk (countable and uncountable, plural talks)

1. A conversation or discussion; usually serious, but informal.
   • 1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter XXIV, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, OCLC 4293071, pages 198–199:

     All this was extraordinarily distasteful to Churchill. […] Never before had he felt such repulsion when the vicar displayed his characteristic bluntness or coarseness of speech. In the present connection—or rather as a transition from the subject that started their conversation—such talk had been distressingly out of place.

   We need to have a talk about your homework.

2. A lecture.

   There is a talk on Shakespeare tonight.

3. (uncountable) Gossip; rumour.

   There's been talk lately about the two of them.

4. (preceded by the; often qualified by a following of) A major topic of social discussion.

   She is the talk of the day.

   The musical is the talk of the town.

6. (preceded by the) A customary conversation by parent(s) or guardian(s) with their (often teenaged) child about a reality of life; in particular:
   1. A customary conversation in which parent(s) explain sexual intercourse to their child.

      Have you had the talk with Jay yet?

   2. (US) A customary conversation in which the parent(s) of a black child explain the racism and violence they may face, especially when interacting with police, and strategies to manage it.
      • 2012, Crystal McCrary, Inspiration: Profiles of Black Women Changing Our World →ISBN:

        Later, I made sure to have the talk with my son about being a black boy, […]

      • 2016, Jim Wallis, America's Original Sin: Racism, White Privilege, and the Bridge →ISBN:

        The Talk
        All the black parents I have ever spoken to have had “the talk” with their sons and daughters. “The talk” is a conversation about how to behave and not to behave with police.

      • 2016, Stuart Scott, Larry Platt, Every Day I Fight →ISBN, page 36:

        Now, I was a black man in the South, and my folks had had “the talk” with me. No, not the one about the birds and bees. This one is about the black man and the police.

7. (uncountable, not preceded by an article) Empty boasting, promises or claims.

   The party leader's speech was all talk.

8. (usually in the plural) Meeting to discuss a particular matter.

   The leaders of the G8 nations are currently in talks over nuclear weapons.

Synonyms

• See also Thesaurus:talk
• (meeting): conference, debate, discussion, meeting

Derived terms

Translations

Related terms

Pages starting with “talk”.

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Chinese talk definition

Etymology

From English talk.

Pronunciation

Noun

talk

1. (Hong Kong Cantonese) talk; lecture; seminar

   聽talk／听talk [Cantonese]  ―  teng¹ tok¹ [Jyutping]  ―  to attend a talk

Verb

talk

1. (Hong Kong Cantonese) to talk (especially a lot)

   talk得 [Cantonese]  ―  tok¹ dak¹ [Jyutping]  ―  talkative

References

• English Loanwords in Hong Kong Cantonese

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Danish talk definition

Etymology

Via French talc or German Talk, from Persian طلق‎ (talq).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /talk/, [tˢalˀɡ̊]

Noun

talk c (singular definite talken, not used in plural form)

1. talc (a soft, fine-grained mineral used in talcum powder)

Related terms

• talkum

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Dutch talk definition

Pronunciation

• Audio

  (file)

Etymology 1

Noun

talk m (uncountable)

1. talc (soft, fine-grained mineral used in talcum powder)

Descendants

• → Indonesian: talk

Etymology 2

From Middle Dutch talch, from Old Dutch *talg, from Proto-Germanic *talgaz. More at English tallow.

Noun

talk c (uncountable)

1. Alternative form of talg (“tallow”)

Descendants

• Negerhollands: talk

Anagrams

• kalt

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Indonesian talk definition

Etymology

From Dutch talk, from Middle French talc, from Arabic طَلْق‎ (ṭalq), from Persian تلک‎ (talk).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): (standard) [ˈtalk], [ˈtalə̆k]
• Hyphenation: talk

Noun

talk (first-person possessive talkku, second-person possessive talkmu, third-person possessive talknya)

1. talc

Alternative forms

• talêk

Further reading

• “talk” in Online Great Dictionary of the Indonesian Language [Kamus Besar Bahasa Indonesia Daring], Jakarta: Language Development and Fostering Agency — Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology of the Republic Indonesia, 2016.

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Polish talk definition

Etymology

From Medieval Latin talcum.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /talk/

• Audio

  (file)

• Rhymes: -alk
• Syllabification: talk

Noun

talk m inan

1. (mineralogy) talc
2. talc, talcum powder

Declension

Derived terms

Further reading

• talk in Wielki słownik języka polskiego, Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN
• talk in Polish dictionaries at PWN

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Swedish talk definition

Noun

talk c

1. talc (a soft, fine-grained mineral used in talcum powder)

Declension

Declension of talk
	Uncountable
	Indefinite	Definite
Nominative	talk	talken	—	—
Genitive	talks	talkens	—	—