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A discourse or address; a talk; a writing; as, the sermens of Chaucer. [Obs.] Chaucer.

, the relation of speaker and source of obligation is of course transferred to the person addressed; as, "Shall you go" (answer, "I shall go"); "Shall he go" i. e., "Do you require or promise his going" (answer, "He shall go".) The same relation is transferred to either second or third person in such phrases as "You sa…

ipping goods by sea. In the case of free goods the shipping notes are the receiving note, addressed by the shipper to the chief officer of the vessel, requesting him to receive on board specified goods, and a receipt for the mate to sign, on receiving whose signature it is called the mate's receipt, and is surrendered…

ent upon it. Chaucer. Have you got leave to go to shrift to-day Shak. Therefore, my lord, address you to your shrift, And be yourself; for you must die this instant. Rowe. Shrift father, a priest to whom confession is made.

Sir; Mr; -- a title of address or respect among the Italians. Before a noun the form is Signor.

Madam; Mrs; -- a title of address or respect among the Italians.

Miss; -- a title of address among the Italians.

A respectful title, used in addressing a man, without being prefixed to his name; -- used especially in speaking to elders or superiors; sometimes, also, used in the way of emphatic formality. "What's that to you, sir" Sheridan.

A tittle of respect formerly used in speaking to elders and superiors, but now only in addressing a sovereign.

A term of address implying inferiority and used in anger, contempt, reproach, or disrespectful familiarity, addressed to a man or boy, but sometimes to a woman. In sililoquies often preceded by ah. Not used in the plural. "Ah, sirrah mistress." Beau & Fl. Go, sirrah, to my cell. Shak.

Display of art; exercise of ability; contrivance; address. [Obs.] Richard . . . by a thousand princely skills, gathering so much corn as if he meant not to return. Fuller.

To address with slang or ribaldry; to insult with vulgar language. [Colloq.] Every gentleman abused by a cabman or slanged by a bargee was bound there and then to take off his coat and challenge him to fisticuffs. London Spectator.

p in reply; apt to speak angrily or testily; easily provoked; tart; peevish. The taunting address of a snappish missanthrope. Jeffrey. -- Snap"pish*ly, adv. -- Snap"pish*ness, n.

To address; to accost; to speak to. [He will] thee in hope; he will speak thee fair. Ecclus. xiii. 6. each village senior paused to scan And speak the lovely caravan. Emerson. To speak a ship (Naut.), to hail and speak to her captain or commander.

ates; as, the Speaker of the House of Commons, originally, the mouthpiece of the House to address the king; the Speaker of a House of Representatives.

h similar stump. -- To go on the stump, or To take the stump, to engage in making public addresses for electioneering purposes; -- a phrase derived from the practice of using a stump for a speaker's platform in newly- settled districts. Hence also the phrases stump orator, stump speaker, stump speech, stump oratory, e…

s formally designated; the title; the official designation of any important body; mode of address; as, the style of Majesty. One style to a gracious benefactor, another to a proud, insulting foe. Burke.

ness; gentleness; urbanity; as, suavity of manners; suavity of language, conversation, or address. Glanvill.

To woo; to pay addresses as a lover. Massinger.

Treatment by commands or positive statements addressed to a more or less hypnotized patient.