ALstories about other people’s personal lives, especially stories that are unkind or untrue 〔关于别人私生活的〕流言蜚语SYN gossip
Examples from the Corpus
scuttlebutt• Seeing that he was getting impatient, Celestine sprung her surprise: a piece of academicscuttlebutt Lufkin had not known.• The scuttlebutt says their contracts were not yet signed and that the pair were holding out for better terms and conditions.
Originscuttlebutt
(1900-2000)scuttlebutt“container for a ship's drinking water”((19-20 centuries)), from scuttled“having a hole cut in it”((18-19 centuries)) (from → SCUTTLE1) + butt“large container for liquid, barrel”((15-21 centuries)) (from Old Frenchbotte, from Late Latinbuttis); because sailors gathered around the container to talk