speechify
English
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[edit]Verb
[edit]speechify (third-person singular simple present speechifies, present participle speechifying, simple past and past participle speechified)
- (intransitive) To give a speech; to hold forth; (now especially) to pronounce pompously or at length.
- 1871–1872, George Eliot [pseudonym; Mary Ann Evans], chapter LVI, in Middlemarch […], volume III, Edinburgh, London: William Blackwood and Sons, →OCLC, book VI, page 238:
- Caleb was a powerful man and knew little of any fear except the fear of hurting others and the fear of having to speechify.
- 1985, Lawrence Durrell, Quinx (Avignon Quintet), Faber & Faber, published 2004, page 1351:
- He never missed a chance of speechifying in public.
- 2007, James Brady, Warning of War: A Novel of the North China Marines, Macmillan, →ISBN:
- The home minister, Admiral Suetsugu, speechified grandly of a Japanese eminent domain beyond the seas, of a “moral purification drive” in the home islands.
- 2013, John Nichols, The Magic Journey: A Novel, Holt Paperbacks, →ISBN, page 20:
- Rodey McQueen speechified elegantly about the necessity for harmony.
- (transitive, possibly obsolete) To make speeches to (someone); to address in a speech.
- 1864, Charles Dickens, chapter 2, in Mrs. Lirriper's Legacy:
- They take their little enjoyments on little means and with little things and don't let solemn big-wigs stare them out of countenance or speechify them dull.
Derived terms
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[edit]Translations
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