Search the Dictionary

f a king or sovereign; majesty; as, in the presence of royalty. For thus his royalty doth speak. Shak.

To discuss; to continue to think or speak about something; -- with on.

f the French ruptuaries ("roturiers," for history must find a word for this class when it speaks of other nations) from the order of nobility. Chenevix.

To give color and flavor to, as by means of saffron; to spice. [Obs.] And in Latyn I speak a wordes few, To saffron with my predication. Chaucer.

Containing or expressing salutations; speaking a welcome; greeting; -- applied especially to the oration which introduces the exercises of the Commencements, or similar public exhibitions, in American colleges.

suffering, or happening; to obviate the necessity of; to prevent; to spare. Will you not speak to save a lady's blush Dryden.

To utter or express in words; to tell; to speak; to declare; as, he said many wise things. Arise, and say how thou camest here. Shak.

To express disapprobation of, as a play, or to silence, as a speaker, by drawing the feet back and forth upon the floor; -- usually with down. Macaulay. To scrape acquaintance, to seek acquaintance otherwise than by an introduction. Farquhar. He tried to scrape acquaintance with her, but failed ignominiously. G. W. Cab…

and seal. Till thou canst rail the seal from off my bond Thou but offend;st thy lungs to speak so loud. Shak.

Belonging to the laity; lay; not clerical. I speak of folk in secular estate. Chaucer. Secular equation (Astron.), the algebraic or numerical expression of the magnitude of the inequalities in a planet's motion that remain after the inequalities of a short period have been allowed for. -- Secular games (Rom. Antiq.),…

Conscious of one's self as an object of the observation of others; as, the speaker was too self-conscious.

An aged person; an older. Dryden. Each village senior paused to scan, And speak the lovely caravan. Emerson.

The practice or methods of sensational writing or speaking; as, the sensationalism of a novel.

One who practices sensational writing or speaking.

ity; understanding; also, that which is sound, true, or reasonable; rational meaning. "He speaks sense." Shak. He raves; his words are loose As heaps of sand, and scattering wide from sense. Dryden.

To speak; to discourse; to compose or deliver a sermon. [Obs.] Holinshed. What needeth it to sermon of it more Chaucer.

uxiliary, shall indicates a duty or necessity whose obligation is derived from the person speaking; as, you shall go; he shall go; that is, I order or promise your going. It thus ordinarily expresses, in the second and third persons, a command, a threat, or a promise. If the auxillary be emphasized, the command is made…

Speaking in a quick or short manner; hence, gruff; curt. [Colloq.]

o close itself; to become closed; as, the door shuts; it shuts hard. To shut up, to cease speaking. [Colloq.] T. Hughes.

ng; a making known by signs or other means. A signification of being pleased. Landor. All speaking or signification of one's mind implies an act or addres of one man to another. South.