Search the Dictionary

To speak or write in return to, as in return to a call or question, or to a speech, declaration, argument, or the like; to reply to (a question, remark, etc.); to respond to. She answers him as if she knew his mind. Shak. So spake the apostate angel, though in pain: . . . And him thus answered soon his bold compeer. Mi…

With a quick pace; quick; fast; speedily. His dewy locks did drop with brine apace. Spenser. A visible triumph of the gospel drawapace. I. Taylor.

ve in to bring the ship over it, and the ship is them said to be hove apeak. [Spelt also apeek.]

Loss of the power of speech, or of the appropriate use of words, the vocal organs remaining intact, and the intelligence being preserved. It is dependent on injury or disease of the brain.

Pertaining to, or affected by, aphasia; speechless.

A disorder of speech in which words can be uttered but not intelligibly joined together.

A figure of speech in which the speaker breaks off suddenly, as if unwilling or unable to state what was in his mind; as, "I declare to you that his conduct -- but I can not speak of that, here."

A figure of speech by which the orator or writer suddenly breaks off from the previous method of his discourse, and addresses, in the second person, some person or thing, absent or present; as, Milton's apostrophe to Light at the beginning of the third book of "Paradise Lost."

dden terror or horror; to dismay; as, the sight appalled the stoutest heart. The house of peers was somewhat appalled at this alarum. Clarendon.

To fit; to suit; to adapt. [Obs.] " To apt their places." B. Jonson. That our speech be apted to edification. Jer. Taylor.

A crossbowman. [Obs.] Speed.

An ancient, antiquated, or old-fashioned, word, expression, or idiom; a word or form of speech no longer in common use.

a merchant vessel of the largest size. Where your argosies with portly sail . . . Do overpeer the petty traffickers. Shak.

arrived; as, news brought by the last arrival. Another arrival still more important was speedily announced. Macaulay.

cunning indirectness of dealing; crafty; as, an artful boy. [The usual sense.] Artful in speech, in action, and in mind. Pope. The artful revenge of various animals. Darwin.

s to be intelligible; characterized by division into words and syllables; as, articulate speech, sounds, words. Total changes of party and articulate opinion. Carlyle.

Produced, as a letter, syllable, or word, by the organs of speech; pronounced.

ministry, in order to ascertain a majority . . . persuaded the queen to create twelve new peers. Smollett. The mildness and precision of their laws ascertained the rule and measure of taxation. Gibbon.

ribe an effect to the right cause; to ascribe such a book to such an author. The finest [speech] that is ascribed to Satan in the whole poem. Addison.

An element of speech entirely destitute of vocality, or produced by the breath alone; a nonvocal or surd consonant; a breathing. Rush.