cailleter

A rare, mostly literary verb for chattering idly and frivolously, related to caillette (an empty-headed chatterbox). Almost nobody uses it in modern spoken French; caqueter or bavarder cover the same idea in everyday speech.

• Les commères cailletaient sur le pas de la porte. — The gossips chattered away on the doorstep.
• Elle caillette sans arrêt dès qu'on la laisse parler. — She chatters non-stop the moment you let her talk.
• On l'entendait cailleter avec ses voisines tous les matins. — You could hear her chattering with her neighbors every morning.

This is a rare, dated word — reaching for it in ordinary conversation will sound bookish; bavarder or papoter is what a modern speaker would actually say.

Often confused with bavarder.