Talk, n.
1. The act of talking; especially, familiar converse; mutual discourse; that which is uttered, especially in familiar conversation, or the mutual converse of two or more. In various talk the instructive hours they passed. Pope. Their talk, when it was not made up of nautical phrases, was too commonly made up of oaths and curses. Macaulay.
2. Report; rumor; as, to hear talk of war. I hear a talk up and down of raising our money. Locke.
3. Subject of discourse; as, his achievment is the talk of the town.
Syn. -- Conversation; colloquy; discourse; chat; dialogue; conference; communication. See Conversation.
2 other Webster entries under this spelling
Talk, v. i. [imp. & p. p. Talked; p. pr. & vb. n. Talking.]
1. To utter words; esp., to converse familiarly; to speak, as in familiar discourse, when two or more persons interchange thoughts. I will buy with you, sell with you, talk with you, walk with you, and so following, but I will not eat with you. Shak.
2. To confer; to reason; to consult. Let me talk with thee of thy judgments. Jer. xii. 1.
3. To prate; to speak impertinently. [Colloq.] To talk of, to relate; to tell; to give an account of; as, authors talk of the wonderful remains of Palmyra. "The natural histories of Switzerland talk much of the fall of these rocks, and the great damage done." Addison. -- To talk to, to advise or exhort, or to reprove gently; as, I will talk to my son respecting his conduct. [Colloq.]
Talk, v. t.
1. To speak freely; to use for conversing or communicating; as, to talk French.
2. To deliver in talking; to speak; to utter; to make a subject of conversation; as, to talk nonsense; to talk politics.
3. To consume or spend in talking; -- often followed by away; as, to talk away an evening.
4. To cause to be or become by talking. "They would talk themselves mad." Shak. To talk over. (a) To talk about; to have conference respecting; to deliberate upon; to discuss; as, to talk over a matter or plan. (b) To change the mind or opinion of by talking; to convince; as, to talk over an opponent.
Shades of meaning
Fernald has no entry of its own for talk; he lists it under conversation, speak, speech.
Where he writes about it:
Talk may be wholly one-sided. — from conversation
Talk may denote the mere utterance of words with little thought; thus, we say idle talk, empty talk, rather than idle or empty conversation. — from conversation
To talk is to utter a succession of connected words, ordinarily with the expectation of being listened to. — from speak
To speak is to give articulate utterance even to a single word; the officer speaks the word of command, but does not talk it. — from speak
To chat is ordinarily to utter in a familiar, conversational way; to chatter is to talk in an empty, ceaseless way like a magpie. — from speak