Shoot the breeze

To chat idly or casually, passing time with aimless talk.

From 20th-century America, rooted in 19th-century slang; 'shoot' for talk, 'breeze' for wind, merged by the 1930s for gab. A 1941 'New York Times' piece uses it for soldiers' chatter, possibly from 'shoot the wind' in hunting tales. It reflects a Depression-era ease with downtime, growing into a breezy idiom of talk in a chatty age.