webchat

See also: web chat

English

Alternative forms

• web chat

Etymology

web +‎ chat

Noun

webchat (plural webchats)

1. A conversation that takes place, usually in text, over the World Wide Web.
   • 1998, Aliza Sherman, Cybergrrl!: a woman's guide to the World Wide Web:

     Some webchats that deliver a real-time feeling require […] plug-ins, which are mini-software programs that you need to download from the Web onto your computer so your Web browser can launch into chat […]

   • 2007, Malcolm Coulthard, Alison Johnson, An Introduction to Forensic Linguistics: Language in Evidence, page 216:

     Avon and Somerset Constabulary Interactive webchat (9 February 2007)

Verb

webchat (third-person singular simple present webchats, present participle webchatting, simple past and past participle webchatted)

1. (intransitive) To take part in such a conversation.
   • 2005, Odebrecht Informa, numbers 116-121, page 39:

     This was the case with Antonio Rodolfo Junior, Braskem's PVC Products and Services Manager, who spent nearly an hour every evening webchatting with his wife and two children, aged 4 and 6, back in Sao Paulo.

Anagrams

• bewatch