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That which attracts or draws; an attraction; an allurement. Speaks nothing but attractives and invitation. South.

To speak reproachfully of; to twit; to upbraid. [Obs.]

of business. According to the fair play of the world, Let me have audience: I am sent to speak. Shak.

ltatory process, which consists in noting the tone of the observer's own voice, while he speaks, holding his head close to the patient's chest. Dunglison.

A babyish manner of acting or speaking.

The part opposite to, or most remote from, that which fronts the speaker or actor; or the part out of sight, or not generally seen; as, the back of an island, of a hill, or of a village.

landestine detraction; to censure meanly or spitefully (as absent person); to slander or speak evil of (one absent). Spenser.

rful, used to fill out a newspaper column; -- an allusion to the miracle of Balaam's ass speaking. Numb. xxii. 30. [Cant] Balaam basket or box (Print.), the receptacle for rejected articles. Blackw. Mag.

To jest about; to ridicule in speaking of, as some trait, habit, characteristic, and the like. [Archaic] If they banter your regularity, order, and love of study, banter in return their neglect of them. Chatham.

[Historical] Therefore if I know not the meaning of the voice, I shall be unto him that speaketh a barbarian, and he that speaketh shall be a barbarian unto me.

Reduced; lowered; restrained; as, to speak with bated breath. Macaulay.

A needless repetition of words in speaking or writing. Milton.

ter, bestir. (b) To render an intransitive verb transitive; as, befall (to fall upon); bespeak (to speak for). (c) To make the action of a verb particular or definite; as, beget (to get as offspring); beset (to set around).

To gain or win. [Obs.] Some think to bear it by speaking a great word. Bacon. She was . . . found not guilty, through bearing of friends and bribing of the judge. Latimer.

proper for; to cause to appear well; -- said of persons and things. It becomes me so to speak of so excellent a poet. Dryden. I have known persons so anxious to have their dress become them, as to convert it, at length, into their proper self, and thus actually to become the dress. Coleridge.

ation, or preliminary; previously; aforetime. They may be taught beforehand the skill of speaking. Hooker.

To make little or less in a moral sense; to speak of in a depreciatory or contemptuous way. T. Jefferson.

A platform from which speakers addressed an assembly. Mitford.

imp. & p. p. of Bespeak.

Having two tongues, or speaking two languages. [Obs.]