n. [ OF. chatel; another form of catel. See Cattle. ] (Law) Any item of movable or immovable property except the freehold, or the things which are parcel of it. It is a more extensive term than goods or effects. [ 1913 Webster ]

☞ Chattels are personal or real: personal are such as are movable, as goods, plate, money; real are such rights in land as are less than a freehold, as leases, mortgages, growing corn, etc. [ 1913 Webster ]

Chattel mortgage (Law), a mortgage on personal property, as distinguished from one on real property. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. The act or condition of holding chattels; the state of being a chattel. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. i. [ imp. & p. p. Chattered p. pr. & vb. n. Chattering. ] [ Of imitative origin. Cf. Chat, v. i. Chitter. ] 1. To utter sounds which somewhat resemble language, but are inarticulate and indistinct. [ 1913 Webster ]

The jaw makes answer, as the magpie chatters. Wordsworth. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. To talk idly, carelessly, or with undue rapidity; to jabber; to prate. [ 1913 Webster ]

To tame a shrew, and charm her chattering tongue. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. To make a noise by rapid collisions. [ 1913 Webster ]

With chattering teeth, and bristling hair upright. Dryden. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. 1. Sounds like those of a magpie or monkey; idle talk; rapid, thoughtless talk; jabber; prattle. [ 1913 Webster ]

Your words are but idle and empty chatter. Longfellow. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Noise made by collision of the teeth, as in shivering. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. To utter rapidly, idly, or indistinctly. [ 1913 Webster ]

Begin his witless note apace to chatter. Spenser. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. The act or habit of chattering. [ Colloq. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

n. 1. A prater; an idle talker. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. (Zool.) A bird of the family Ampelidæ -- so called from its monotonous note. The Bohemion chatterer (Ampelis garrulus) inhabits the arctic regions of both continents. In America the cedar bird is a more common species. See Bohemian chatterer, and Cedar bird. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. The act or habit of talking idly or rapidly, or of making inarticulate sounds; the sounds so made; noise made by the collision of the teeth; chatter. [ 1913 Webster ]

. (a) (Mach.) One of the fine undulations or ripples which are formed on the surface of work by a cutting tool which chatters. (b) (Geol.) A short crack on a rock surface planed smooth by a glacier. [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]