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Fig. : The power of persuasion or attraction; that which allures or charms. Sweet, silent rhetoric of persuading eyes. Daniel.

Of or pertaining to rhetoric; according to, or exhibiting, rhetoric; oratorical; as, the rhetorical art; a rhetorical treatise; a rhetorical flourish. They permit him to leave their poetical taste ungratified, provided that he gratifies their rhetorical sense. M. Arnold. -- Rhe*tor"ic*al*ly, adv. -- Rhe*tor"ic*al*ness…

To play the orator. [Obs.] South.

Rhetorical amplification. [Obs.] Waterland.

One well versed in the rules and principles of rhetoric. The understanding is that by which a man becomes a mere logician and a mere rhetorician. F. W. Robertson.

Not rethorical.

extreme hardness; but in modern minerology it has no technical signification. It is now a rhetorical or poetical name for the embodiment of impenetrable hardness. Opposed the rocky orb Of tenfold adamant, his ample shield. Milton.

ing of a simple statement by particularity of description, the use of epithets, etc., for rhetorical effect; diffuse narrative or description, or a dilating upon all the particulars of a subject. Exaggeration is a species of amplification. Brande & C. I shall summarily, without any amplification at all, show in what ma…

Pertaining to an apostrophe, grammatical or rhetorical.

To use the rhetorical figure called apostrophe.

stle or fortress in Paris, used as a prison, especially for political offenders; hence, a rhetorical name for a prison.

Learning; also, a learned profession. [Obs.] Sophictry . . . rhetoric, and other cleargy. Guy of Warwick. Put their second sons to learn some clergy. State Papers (1515).

To speak rhetorically; to make a formal speech or oration; to harangue; specifically, to recite a speech, poem, etc., in public as a rhetorical exercise; to practice public speaking; as, the students declaim twice a week.

The act or art of declaiming; rhetorical delivery; haranguing; loud speaking in public; especially, the 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.…

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

A kind of rhetoric employed in proving a thing and convincing others of its truth, in order to persuade them to adopt it.

A rhetorical exercise in which parties reason in opposition to each other on some question proposed.

colors; variegated decoration. Fields in spring's embroidery are dressed. Addison. A mere rhetorical embroidery of phrases. J. A. Symonds.

word play; hence, skill in debate and repartee. See Fencing. Enjoy your dear wit, and gay rhetoric, That hath so well been taught her dazzing fence. Milton. Of dauntless courage and consummate skill in fence. Macaulay.

Embellished with flowers of rhetoric; enriched to excess with figures; excessively ornate; as, a florid style; florid eloquence.