small talk

small talk
Idle conversation, typically on innocuous or unimportant subjects, usually engaged in at social gatherings out of politeness.

[T]o the credit of the lady it may be added that . . . without any of the arts of flattery or the gaieties of small talk, he began to be agreeable to her.


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  • Small Talk — Small Talk …   Deutsch Wörterbuch

  • Small talk — is conversation for its own sake; the ability to conduct small talk is a social skill.Small talk is sometimes referred to as phatic communication , a term coined by Bronisław Malinowski in 1923.Small talk, Small Talk or Smalltalk may also… …   Wikipedia

  • Small Talk — Small Talk, der, auch: das; s, s, Small|talk, der, auch: das; s, s [engl. small talk, zu: talk = Gespräch, Unterhaltung] (bildungsspr.): leichte, beiläufige Konversation: der übliche S. T. auf Partys war ihm zuwider. * * * Smalltalk [ smɔ:l tɔ:k] …   Universal-Lexikon

  • Small talk — Small Small (sm[add]l), a. [Compar. {Smaller}; superl. {Smallest}.] [OE. small, AS. sm[ae]l; akin to D. smal narrow, OS. & OHG. smal small, G. schmal narrow, Dan. & Sw. smal, Goth. smals small, Icel. smali smal cattle, sheep, or goats; cf. Gr.… …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • small talk — UK US noun [U] ► polite conversation about things that are not important, often between people who are meeting for the first time: »I soon learned how to make small talk with people at formal receptions …   Financial and business terms

  • small talk — n [U] polite friendly conversation about unimportant subjects ▪ We stood around making small talk …   Dictionary of contemporary English

  • small talk — small′ talk n. light conversation; chitchat • Etymology: 1745–55 small′ talk , v.i …   From formal English to slang

  • small talk — talk about unimportant topics the weather etc.    Winnie is good at making small talk with strangers …   English idioms

  • small talk — [n] casual conversation babble, blab*, blather, chatter, chitchat*, gossip, idle chatter, idle talk, jabber*, prattle, yakking*; concepts 274,278 …   New thesaurus

  • small talk — small ,talk noun uncount informal conversation about things that are not important …   Usage of the words and phrases in modern English

  • small talk — ► NOUN ▪ polite conversation about trivial or uncontroversial matters …   English terms dictionary

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