talk

verb

1. (intransitive)To communicate, usually by means of speech.

   “Let's sit down and talk.”

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

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

   “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.”

   “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.”

2. (informal, transitive)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. (informal, transitive)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.

   “People will talk.”

   “Aren't you afraid the neighbours will talk?”

8. (transitive)To manifest outwardly in speech, as opposed to reality or action.

   “Remember that Christ and Christianity may not always be the same thing; e.g. Jerry Falwell talks "Christianity" but practices hatred […] which is diametrically opposed to what Jesus really taught.”

9. (informal)To influence someone to express something, especially a particular stance or viewpoint or in a particular manner.

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

   “"So, are you going to give up all this good living and easy money and come fly for the Russians?" "Hello no. I told you that yesterday." "That was your wallet talking. The shooting has started. Now I appeal to your patriotism, your manhood, your sense of duty."”

noun

1. (countable, uncountable)A conversation or discussion; usually serious, but informal.

   “We need to have a talk about your homework.”

   “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.”

2. (countable, uncountable)A lecture.

   “There is a talk on Shakespeare tonight.”

3. (uncountable)Gossip; rumour.

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

4. (countable, uncountable)A major topic of social discussion.

   “She is the talk of the day.”

   “The musical is the talk of the town.”

5. (countable, uncountable)A customary conversation by parent(s) or guardian(s) with their (often teenage) child about a reality of life; in particular:

   “Have you had the talk with Jay yet? I found a condom in his room.”

6. (US, countable, uncountable)A customary conversation by parent(s) or guardian(s) with their (often teenage) child about a reality of life; in particular:

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

   “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.”

   “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)Empty boasting, promises or claims.

   “The party leader's speech was all talk.”

8. (countable, plural-normally, uncountable)Meeting to discuss a particular matter.

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