Search the Dictionary

Speaking or spoken smoothly and with flippant rapidity; fluent; voluble; as, a glib tongue; a glib speech. I want that glib and oily art, To speak and purpose not. Shak.

To move from the person speaking, or from the point whence the action is contemplated; to pass away; to leave; to depart; -- in opposition to stay and come. I will let you go, that ye may sacrifice to the Lord your God; . . . only ye shall not go very far away. Ex. viii. 28.

A husband; the master of a house or family; -- often used in speaking familiarly. [Archaic] Chaucer. Say ye to the goodman of the house, . . . Where is the guest-chamber Mark xiv. 14.

her; the art concerned with the right use aud application of the rules of a language, in speaking or writing.

Speaking in a lofty style; pompous; bombastic.

Customary way of speaking or acting; custom; fashion; manner; behavior; mien; mode; practice; -- often used formerly in such phrases as: at his own guise; that is, in his own fashion, to suit himself. Chaucer. The swain replied, "It never was our guise To slight the poor, or aught humane despise." Pope.…

Fig.: To mangle in speaking. Shak.

or duty; a performer more or less skillful; as, a deck hand; a farm hand; an old hand at speaking. A dictionary containing a natural history requires too many hands, as well as too much time, ever to be hoped for. Locke. I was always reckoned a lively hand at a simile. Hazlitt.

To use or manage in writing or speaking; to treat, as a theme, an argument, or an objection. We will handle what persons are apt to envy others. Bacon. To handle without gloves. See under Glove. [Colloq.]

A buffoon, dressed in party-colored clothes, who plays tricks, often without speaking, to divert the bystanders or an audience; a merry-andrew; originally, a droll rogue of Italian comedy. Percy Smith. As dumb harlequin is exhibited in our theaters. Johnson. Harlequin bat (Zoöl.), an Indian bat (Scotophilus ornatus), c…

To dwell on or recur to a subject tediously or monotonously in speaking or in writing; to refer to something repeatedly or continually; -- usually with on or upon. "Harpings upon old themes." W. Irving. Harping on what I am, Not what he knew I was. Shak. To harp on one string, to dwell upon one subject with disagreeabl…

To stop, in speaking, with a sound like haw; to speak with interruption and hesitation. Cut it short; don't prose -- don't hum and haw. Chesterfield.

he hath heard my voice. Ps. cxvi. 1. They think that they shall be heard for their much speaking. Matt. vi. 7. Hear him. See Remark, under Hear, v. i. -- To hear a bird sing, to receive private communication. [Colloq.] Shak. -- To hear say, to hear one say; to learn by common report; to receive by rumor. [Colloq.]…

A Hebrew idiom or custom; a peculiar expression or manner of speaking in the Hebrew language. Addison.

To make the sound expressed by the word hem; hence, to hesitate in speaking. "Hem, and stroke thy beard." Shak.

To stammer; to falter in speaking.

Being on the side next or toward the person speaking; nearer; -- correlate of thither and farther; as, on the hither side of a hill. Milton.

Sweet speaking; persuasive; seductive. Shak.

To make an inarticulate sound, like h'm, through the nose in the process of speaking, from embarrassment or a affectation; to hem.

of men; according to the knowledge or wisdom of men; as, the present prospects, humanly speaking, promise a happy issue. Sir W. Raleigh.