dots-menu
×

Mawson, C.O.S., ed. (1870–1938). Roget’s International Thesaurus. 1922.

Class IV. Words Relating to the Intellectual Faculties
Division (II) Communication of Ideas
Section III. Means of Communicating Ideas
2. Spoken Language

582. Speech.

   NOUN:SPEECH, faculty of speech; locution, talk, parlance, verbal intercourse, prolation [archaic], oral communication, word of mouth, parole, palaver, prattle.
  ORATION, recitation, delivery, say [colloq.], speech, lecture, prelection or prælection, harangue, sermon, tirade, formal speech, peroration; speechifying; soliloquy [See Soliloquy]; allocution [See Allocution]; interlocution [See Interlocution]; salutatory [U. S.]; screed; valedictory [U. S.].
  ORATORY, elocution, eloquence, rhetoric, declamation; grandiloquence, multiloquence, talkativeness; burst of eloquence; facundity [obs.]; flow -, command- of -words, – language; copia verborum [L.]; power of speech, gift of the gab [colloq.]; usus loquendi [L.].
  SPEAKER &c. v.; spokesman; prolocutor, interlocutor; mouthpiece, Hermes; orator, oratrix, oratress; Demosthenes, Cicero; rhetorician, lecturer, preacher, prelector or prælector; elocutionist, reciter, reader [U. S.]; spellbinder; stump -, platform- orator; speechmaker, patterer, monologist, monologuist, improvisator, improvvisatore or improvisatore [It.], improvvisatrice or improvisatrice [It.].
   VERB:SPEAK, – of; say, utter, pronounce, deliver, give utterance to; utter -, pour- forth; breathe, let fall, come out with; rap out, blurt out; have on one’s lips; have at the -end, – tip- of one’s tongue.
  soliloquize [See Soliloquy]; tell (inform) [See Information]; speak to [See Allocution]; talk together [See Interlocution].
  BREAK SILENCE; open one’s – lips, -mouth; lift -, raise- one’s voice; give tongue, wag the tongue [colloq.]; talk, outspeak; put in a word or two.
  DECLAIM, hold forth; make -, deliver- a speech &c. n.; speechify [derisive or humorous], harangue, stump [colloq., U. S.], flourish, spout, rant, recite, lecture, prelect or prælect, sermonize, discourse, be on one’s legs; have -, say- one’s say; expatiate (speak at length) [See Diffuseness]; speak one’s mind, go on the -, take the- stump [U. S.].
  BE ELOQUENT &c. adj.; have a tongue in one’s head, have the gift of the gab [colloq.] &c. n.
  PASS ONE’S LIPS, escape one’s lips; fall from the -lips, – mouth.
   ADJECTIVE:ORAL, lingual, phonetic, not written, nuncupative [of wills], unwritten; speaking &c., spoken &c. v.; outspoken, facund [archaic].
  ELOQUENT, oratorical, rhetorical, elocutionary, declamatory; grandiloquent [See Ornament]; talkative [See Loquacity]; Ciceronian, Tullian.
   ADVERB:ORALLY &c. adj.; by word of mouth, vivâ voce [L.], from the lips of; from his own mouth.
   QUOTATIONS:
  1. Quoth -, said- he &c..
  2. Action is eloquence.—Coriolanus
  3. Pour the full tide of eloquence along.—Pope
  4. She speaks poignards and every word stabs.—Much Ado About Nothing
  5. Speech is but broken light upon the depth of the unspoken.—G. Eliot
  6. To try thy eloquence now ’tis time.—Antony and Cleopatra
  7. Language most shows a man; speak that I may see thee.—B. Jonson