gossip
part of speech
noun (gossip — uncountable; a gossip, gossips for people); verb (gossip, gossips, gossiped, gossiping)
meaning for a pupil
1) Gossip is talk about other people's private lives, often unkind or not true. tree →
2) A gossip is a person who likes to talk about others. tree →
3) To gossip means to talk about other people in this way. tree →
sense in the lessons
In lessons about friendship and truth gossip can hurt feelings and spread untrue rumours; it is good to stop it, not pass it on. In stories gossip causes trouble or misunderstandings. Phrases: «spread gossip», «a bit of gossip», «gossip about», «gossip magazine».
examples
- Don't listen to gossip about your friends. tree →
- They were gossiping about the new boy. tree →
- Gossip can hurt people's feelings. tree →
- She is a terrible gossip. tree →
- I heard some gossip at lunch, but I didn't believe it. tree →
- The gossip turned out to be untrue. tree →
- The old ladies gossiped over the garden fence. tree →
- The Soldier was gossiping with him, and said: tree →
note
Spelling: gossiped, gossiping with one p (also gossipped in UK, less common). Uncountable for the talk: «some gossip», «a piece of gossip». Ask yourself: is it true, is it kind, is it needed? If not, don't pass it on.
In the corpora
- A good way to sort any bit of gossip is to ask four things.
- Bad-news gossip can feel caring but still spreads fear; offer help, not headlines.
- Good-news gossip that thanks someone or shares their own news is the best kind.
- If you are really worried about a child being unsafe, tell a trusted adult instead of turning it into gossip.
- Good news can be gossip too, and the best stories are the ones people share themselves.
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «gossip» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.