Idle chatter from friend, a part of speech cut short (7)
I believe the answer is:
palaver
'idle chatter' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'friend a part of speech cut short' is the wordplay.
'friend' becomes 'pal' (pal can mean a friend).
'part of speech' becomes 'verb' (verb is a kind of part of speech in grammar).
'cut short' means to remove the last letter.
'verb' with its last letter taken away is 'ver'.
'pal'+'a'+'ver'='PALAVER'
'from' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for palaver that I've seen before include "Song-and-dance" , "Confused talk and activity" , "Fuss and bother" , "'Flattery, empty talk (7)'" , "idle conversation" .)