declaim

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He refused to declaim, and no power could make him do so, and for this reason he was denied the honor of a Commencement part, which he had won, being number eighteen by rank in his class; he was nervously shy about declaiming, owing, it is said, to his having been laughed at on his first attempt as a school-boy at Salem; but he either delivered or read a Latin theme at a Junior exhibition.

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Definitions (14)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (3)

  1. intransitive verb To deliver a formal recitation, especially as an exercise in rhetoric or elocution.
  2. intransitive verb To speak loudly and vehemently; inveigh.
  3. transitive verb To utter or recite with rhetorical effect.

Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (7)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (2)

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Examples (50)

  • His satires were famous in Night's Doorstep; I'd heard him declaim, once. —  Jacqueline Carey - Kushiel 02 - Kushiel's Chosen
  • In conversation he did not tend to declaim or monopolize the talk. —  Victorian Worthies Sixteen Biographies
  • If Mill taught some of them to reason, Macaulay tempted more of them to declaim: if Mill set an example of patience, tolerance, and fair examination of hostile opinions, Macaulay did much to encourage oracular arrogance, and a rather too thrasonical complacency; if Mill sowed ideas of the great economic, political, and moral bearings of the forces of society, Macaulay trained a taste for superficial particularities, trivial circumstantialities of local colour, and all the paraphernalia of the pseudo-picturesque Of course nothing so obviously untrue is meant as that this is an account of Macaulay's own quality. —  Critical Miscellanies, Volume I (of 3) Essay 4: Macaulay
  • Now who would like to participate in these exercises Nat was on his feet in a moment; for he was always ready to declaim, or perform his part of a dialogue. —  The Bobbin Boy or, How Nat Got His learning
  • Do not rant or declaim, but speak it 4. —  Successful Methods of Public Speaking
 

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Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

Allen's Allen's Synonyms and Antonyms

Used in the same context Used in the Same Context

instrumentalist ·  wood-wind ·  chitter ·  hisevangelist ·  spile ·  arpeggios ·  clef ·  pye ·  clarionet ·  sax ·  paring

Used in the same contextWord Family

declaim:   declaimed
Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (2)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Middle English declamen, from Latin dēclāmāre : dē-, intensive pref.; see de- + clāmāre, to cry out; see kelə-2 in Indo-European roots.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (1)

  1. from Middle English declamen = Old French declamer, French déclamer (later D. declameren = German declamiren = Danish deklamere = Swedish deklamera) = Spanish Portuguese declamar = Italian declamare, from Latin declamare, cry aloud, make a speech, from de- (intensive) + clamare, cry, shout: see claim, clamor.
 

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/dəˈkleɪm/
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