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Not loudly; faintly; timidly. [Obs. or Humorous] You may speak as small as you will. Shak.

To flatter; to use blandishment. Because I can not flatter and speak fair, Smile in men's faces, smooth, deceive and cog. Shak.

Speaking smoothly; plausible; flattering; smooth-tongued.

Sharp 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 speak crossly; to talk in rude, surly terms. It is malicious and unmanly to snarl at the little lapses of a pen, from which Virgil himself stands not exempted. Dryden.

To inssinuate contempt by a covert expression; to speak derisively. I could be content to be a little sneared at. Pope.

A bannerlike stream of snow blown into the air from a mountain peak, often having a pinkish color and extending horizontally for several miles across the sky.

To speak through the nose; to breathe through the nose when it is obstructed, so as to make a broken sound. One clad in purple Eats, and recites some lamentable rhyme . . . Snuffling at nose, and croaking in his throat. Dryden.

Speaking softly; having a mild or gentle voice; hence, mild; affable.

ellowship in gain and loss, in honor and dishonor, in victory and defeat, a being, so to speak, all in the same boat. Trench. The solidarity . . . of Breton and Welsh poetry. M. Arnold.

A cant or whining mode of speaking, especially in preaching or praying. [Scot.] Jamieson.

air that shall strike the organs of hearing with a perceptible effect. "And first taught speaking trumpets how to sound." Dryden. How silver-sweet sound lovers' tongues! Shak.

A board or structure placed behind or over a pulpit or rostrum to give distinctness to a speaker's voice.

imp. of Speak.

or words; the faculty of expressing thoughts by words or articulate sounds; the power of speaking. There is none comparable to the variety of instructive expressions by speech, wherewith man alone is endowed for the communication of his thoughts. Holder.

Not speaking for a time; dumb; mute; silent. Speechless with wonder, and half dead with fear. Addison. -- Speech"less*ly, adv. -- Speech"less*ness, n.

One who makes speeches; one accustomed to speak in a public assembly.

To speak. [Obs.] Chaucer.

To speak hastily and confusedly; to sputter. [Colloq.] Carleton.

imp. of Speak.