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he public recitation of speeches as an exercise in schools and colleges; as, the practice declamation by students. The public listened with little emotion, but with much civility, to five acts of monotonous declamation. Macaulay.

Full of censure; censorious. The censorial declamation of Juvenal. T. Warton.

To defend by declamation; to advocate loudly. [Obs.] "Declaims his cause." South.

Pertaining to declamation; treated in the manner of a rhetorician; as, a declamatory theme.

expediency in vice. Cogan. To determine concerning the expedience of action. Sharp. Much declamation may be heard in the present day against expediency, as if it were not the proper object of a deliberative assembly, and as if it were only pursued by the unprincipled. Whately.

Exaggerated declamation; rant.

a popular oration; a loud address a multitude; in a bad sense, a noisy or pompous speech; declamation; ranting. Gray-headed men and grave, with warriors mixed, Assemble, and harangues are heard. Milton.

A piece of melody; a song or tune, -- as opposed to recitative or musical declamation.

Of, pertaining to, or uttered in, a monotone; monotonous. "Monotonical declamation." Chesterfield.

; musical drama of this character, in general. It involves the use of a kind of melodious declamation, the development of leitmotif, great orchestral elaboration, and a fusion of poetry, music, action, and scene into an organic whole. The term is applied esp. to the later works of Wagner: "Tristan und Isolde," "Die Mei…

Hence: Any discourse or declamation abounding in acrimonious invective.

t language, without dignity of thought; to be noisy, boisterous, and bombastic in talk or declamation; as, a ranting preacher. Look where my ranting host of the Garter comes! Shak.

musical recitation in which the words are delivered in manner resembling that of ordinary declamation; also, a piece of music intended for such recitation; -- opposed to melisma.

Hence, artificial eloquence; fine language or declamation without conviction or earnest feeling.

A book of selections for declamation. [U. S.]

Public declamation; oratory.

Elevated as if on stilts; hence, pompous; bombastic; as, a stilted style; stilted declamation. Stilted arch (Arch.), an arch in which the springing line is some distance above the impost, the space between being occupied by a vertical member, molded or ornamented, as a continuation of the archivolt, intrados, etc.…