talk

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /tɔːk/
• (US) IPA^(key): /tɔk/
  • ([[w:cot-caught merger|]], [[w:northern cities vowel shift|]]) IPA^(key): /tɑk/

• Audio (UK) – to talk

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• Audio (US) (cot-caught merged)

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• Rhymes: -ɔːk
• Homophones: torc, torq, torque (non-rhotic accents only)

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.

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

1. (transitive) To communicate, usually by means of speech.
   • William Shakespeare

     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:

     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:

     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)

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

   They sat down to talk business.

   We talk French sometimes.

2. (transitive, informal) To discuss.

   They sat down to talk business.

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

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

   Suppose he talks?

   She can be relied upon not to talk.

   They tried to make me talk.

4. (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.

5. (intransitive) To gossip; to create scandal.
   • 1918, W. B. Maxwell, chapter 13, in The Mirror and the Lamp:

     “ […]  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?

6. (informal, chiefly used in the present participle) 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!

See also: talkest, talketh

• See also Thesaurus:talk

• listen

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

talk (countable and uncountable, plural talks)

1. A conversation or discussion; usually serious, but informal.
   • 1918, W. B. Maxwell, chapter 12, in The Mirror and the Lamp:

     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 connexion—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. (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.

4. (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.

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

   The party leader's speech was all talk.

6. Meeting to discuss a particular matter.

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

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

Pages starting with "talk".

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

• IPA^(key): /talk/, [tˢalˀɡ̊]

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

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

• talkum

• Audio

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talk m (uncountable)

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

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

talk c (uncountable)

1. Alternative form of talg (“tallow”)

• kalt

talk m inan

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

talk c

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