chat v.i.: confabulate

The hotel, on a highway outside Richmond, the state capital of Virginia, braced itself for [boxing promoter Don King’s] arrival, as for that of a hurricane. In the lobby his minions confabulated in blobs: roly-poly men like waddling molecules, their bangles jangling, their pinky rings glinting, walkie-talkies jutting from their polyester rumps. (Peter Conrad, The Joy of Slavery, Independent on Sunday, 03/10/1996, p. 4.)

This word, when used in the above sense can also be a synonym for talk, converse, discuss or talk.