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1 VERB If you chatter , you talk quickly and continuously, usually about things which are not important. □ [V adv/prep] Everyone's chattering away in different languages. □ [V + about ] Erica was friendly and chattered about Andrew's children. □ [V -ing] He listened to chattering maids as they passed by. [Also V ] ● N‑UNCOUNT Chatter is also a noun. □  …idle chatter. □  Lila kept up a steady stream of chatter.

2 VERB If your teeth chatter , they keep knocking together because you are very cold or very nervous. □ [V ] She was so cold her teeth chattered.

3 VERB When birds or animals chatter , they make high-pitched noises. [LITERARY ] □ [V ] Birds were chattering somewhere. ● N‑UNCOUNT Chatter is also a noun. □ [+ of ] …almond trees vibrating with the chatter of crickets.

chatter|box /tʃæ tə ^r bɒks/ (chatterboxes ) N‑COUNT A chatterbox is someone who talks a lot. [INFORMAL ]

cha t|ter|ing clas|ses N‑PLURAL The chattering classes are people such as journalists, broadcasters, or public figures who comment on events but have little or no influence over them. [BRIT , JOURNALISM , DISAPPROVAL ] □  Radical feminism is currently the fashionable topic among the chattering classes.

chat|ty /tʃæ ti/

1 ADJ Someone who is chatty talks a lot in a friendly, informal way. □  She's quite a chatty person.

2 ADJ A chatty style of writing or talking is friendly and informal. □  … a long, chatty e-mail from a colleague.

cha t-up line (chat-up lines ) N‑COUNT A chat-up line is a remark that someone makes in order to start a conversation with someone they do not know but find sexually attractive. [BRIT ] in AM, use line

chauf|feur /ʃoʊ fə ^r , ʃoʊfɜː ^r / (chauffeurs , chauffeuring , chauffeured )

1 N‑COUNT The chauffeur of a rich or important person is the man or woman who is employed to look after their car and drive them around in it.

2 VERB If you chauffeur someone somewhere, you drive them there in a car, usually as part of your job. □ [V n adv/prep] It was certainly useful to have her there to chauffeur him around. □ [V -ed] Caroline had a chauffeured car waiting to take her to London. [Also V n]

chau|vin|ism /ʃoʊ v I n I zəm/

1 N‑UNCOUNT Chauvinism is a strong, unreasonable belief that your own country is more important and morally better than other people's. [DISAPPROVAL ] □ [+ of ] It may also appeal to the latent chauvinism of many ordinary people. ●  chau|vin|ist (chauvinists ) N‑COUNT □  They consider themselves patriots, but they are chauvinists and authoritarians.

2 → see also male chauvinism

3 → see also male chauvinist

chau|vin|is|tic /ʃoʊ v I n I st I k/

1 ADJ [usu ADJ n] If you describe someone as chauvinistic , you believe that they think their own country is more important and morally better than any other. [DISAPPROVAL ] □  …national narrow-mindedness and chauvinistic arrogance.

2 ADJ If you describe a man or his behaviour as chauvinistic , you disapprove of him for believing that men are naturally better and more important than women. [DISAPPROVAL ] □  My ex-boyfriend Anthony was very chauvinistic.

chav /tʃæ v/ (chavs ) N‑COUNT If you call someone a chav , you think that the way they look shows a lack of taste and education, although they may wear expensive clothes. [DISAPPROVAL ]

cheap ◆◆◇ /tʃiː p/ (cheaper , cheapest )