splitting the breeze
- idiom
- Informal
:
charlar
- After dinner, we sat on the porch splitting the breeze as the sun went down.
Examples
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She loves splitting the breeze with her neighbors every Sunday morning.
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We were splitting the breeze for hours and lost track of time.
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They were just splitting the breeze at the café.
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Why don't you join us for some splitting the breeze?
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After dinner, we sat on the porch splitting the breeze as the sun went down.
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She loves splitting the breeze with her neighbors every Sunday morning.
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We were splitting the breeze for hours and lost track of time.
Synonyms
269
1.0
To talk in a friendly, informal way about small everyday things
86
2.7
To talk quickly and without stopping about unimportant things
40
1.6
To talk in a friendly, casual way about a subject
9
6.8
To chat in a relaxed informal way about unimportant things
7
3.0
To talk in a friendly, light way about unimportant things
To talk in a relaxed, friendly way
To talk in a relaxed way about nothing important
To chat with others about small, unimportant things
How Chatty
Surface Forms
Morphology
splitting + the + breeze
The sense 'engaging in casual conversation' cannot be derived from the literal constituents 'splitting' (dividing) and 'breeze' (a light wind or an easy thing); a B1 learner who knows those words would expect a physical or literal meaning, not chatting. This phrase appears to be an idiomatic or variant form (cf. 'shoot the breeze') whose conversational meaning is unpredictable from the parts, so it would be opaque to learners.
Etymology
Splitting the breeze may come from the image of friends sitting outside while a light wind moves between them, as if their talk cuts or 'splits' the breeze. That's why it means 'engaging in casual conversation or idle chatting'.