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A soft manner of speaking.

Not willing to speak; mute; silent; not speaking; not accompanied by words; as, dumb show. This spirit, dumb to us, will speak to him. Shak. To pierce into the dumb past. J. C. Shairp.

The quality or state of being dumb; muteness; silence; inability to speak.

A digression in which a person is introduced speaking his own words.

Power to produce results; efficiency; force; importance; account; as, to speak with effect.

The practice of too frequently using the word I; hence, a speaking or writing overmuch of one's self; self-exaltation; self- praise; the act or practice of magnifying one's self or parading one's own doings. The word is also used in the sense of egoism. His excessive egotism, which filled all objects with himself. Hazl…

One addicted to egotism; one who speaks much of himself or magnifies his own achievements or affairs.

eful and highly attractive; as, elegant manners; elegant style of composition; an elegant speaker; an elegant structure. A more diligent cultivation of elegant literature. Prescott.

hose taste . . . Gave elocution to the mute, and taught The tongue not made for speech to speak thy praise. Milton.

nguage either spoken or written, thereby producing conviction or persuasion. Eloquence is speaking out . . . out of the abundance of the heart. Hare.

A particular stress of utterance, or force of voice, given in reading and speaking to one or more words whose signification the speaker intends to impress specially upon his audience. The province of emphasis is so much more important than accent, that the customary seat of the latter is changed, when the claims of emp…

ose; to apply; as, to employ the pen in writing, bricks in building, words and phrases in speaking; to employ the mind; to employ one's energies. This is a day in which the thoughts . . . ought to be employed on serious subjects. Addison.

lves and fairies in a ring, Enchanting all that you put in. Shak. He is enchanted, cannot speak. Tennyson.

To speak or write at length; to be diffuse in speaking or writing; to expatiate; to dilate. To enlarge upon this theme. M. Arnold.

or pronunciation, especially as regards fullness and distinctness or articulation; as, to speak with a clear or impressive enunciation.

A figure by which a speaker recalls a word or words, in order to substitute something else stronger or more significant; as, Most brave! Brave, did I say most heroic act!

To speak an epilogue to; to utter as an epilogue.

To write or speak after the manner of an epitaph. [R.] The common in their speeches epitaph upon him . . . "He lived as a wolf and died as a dog." Bp. Hall.

Supposition; conjecture. I speak not this in estimation, As what I think might be, but what I know. Shak.

To speak or write in commendation of (another); to extol in speech or writing; to praise.