Search the Dictionary

To talk glibly; to chatter; to harangue. [Colloq.] I've gone out and pattered to get money. Mayhew.

To make a peroration; to harangue. [Colloq.]

To proclaim by public discourse; to utter in a sermon or a formal religious harangue. That Cristes gospel truly wolde preche. Chaucer. The Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek. Isa. lxi. 1.

A religious harangue; a sermon; -- used derogatively. Shak.

trate; to baffle. I hoped for a demonstration, but Themistius hoped to put me off with an harangue. Boyle. We might put him off with this answer. Bentley.

The Beaks; the stage or platform in the forum where orations, pleadings, funeral harangues, etc., were delivered; -- so called because after the Latin war, it was adorned with the beaks of captured vessels; later, applied also to other platforms erected in Rome for the use of public orators.

An harangue; a long tirade on any subject. The old carl gae them a screed of doctrine; ye might have heard him a mile down the wind. Sir W. Scott.

To utter a speech, discourse, or harangue; to adress a public assembly formally. Many of the nobility made themselves popular by speaking in Parliament against those things which were most grateful to his majesty. Clarendon.

formal discourse in public; oration; harangue. The constant design of these orators, in all their speeches, was to drive some one particular point. Swift.

To make a speech; to harangue. [Used derisively or humorously.]

A declamatory strain or flight of censure or abuse; a rambling invective; an oration or harangue abounding in censorious and bitter language. Here he delivers a violent tirade against persons who profess to know anything about angels. Quarterly Review.