chats

1. 1
   noun

   Plural of chat.

   A few quick chats with colleagues turned into a whole afternoon of catching up.

   The group's weekly chats kept everyone connected during the long winter.

   Note

   Counting turns the talk into episodes. As a mass noun, chat is simply idle conversation (too much chat), but chats are separate exchanges, whether over coffee or in a messaging app. The same plural also names a group of small Old World insect-eating songbirds, so a birdwatcher's chats are not conversations at all. The spelling is shared with the present-tense verb, as in she chats.

2. 2
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present indicative of chat.

   My aunt chats happily with anyone she meets at the market.

   The host chats with each guest before the show begins.

   Note

   It usually takes a partner or a topic. She chats with a neighbor, he chats about football, or a teenager chats online in a messaging app. It also has a plainer transitive use, meaning to talk of or discuss something. In informal slang, chats shit means talks nonsense or lies, a phrase best kept for casual company.

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