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Definitions

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

  1. n. A long pompous speech, especially one delivered before a gathering.
  2. n. A speech or piece of writing characterized by strong feeling or expression; a tirade.
  3. v. To deliver a harangue to.
  4. v. To deliver a harangue.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

  1. n. A set oration; a public address; a formal, vehement, or passionate address; also, any formal or pompous speech; a declamation; a tirade.
  2. n. Synonyms Address, Oration, etc. See speech.
  3. To address in a harangue; make a speech to: as, the general harangued the troops.
  4. To make a formal address or speech; deliver a harangue; declaim.

Wiktionary

  1. n. An impassioned, disputatious public speech.
  2. n. A tirade or rant, whether spoken or written.
  3. v. To give a forceful and lengthy lecture or criticism to someone.

GNU Webster's 1913

  1. n. A speech addressed to a large public assembly; a popular oration; a loud address to a multitude; in a bad sense, a noisy or pompous speech; declamation; ranting.
  2. v. To make an harangue; to declaim.
  3. v. To address by an harangue.

WordNet 3.0

  1. n. a loud bombastic declamation expressed with strong emotion
  2. v. deliver a harangue to; address forcefully

Etymologies

  1. Middle English arang, a speech to an assembly, from Old French harangue, from Old Italian aringa, from aringare, to speak in public, probably from aringo, arringa, public square, meeting place, of Germanic origin; see koro- in Indo-European roots.

Examples

  • “This was, perhaps, the first time an harangue from the baron had been thought too short; but the surprise of young Lynmere; at the view of his destined bride, made him wish he would speak on, merely to annul any necessity for speaking himself.”

    Camilla: or, A Picture of Youth

  • “Therefore, to make you happier, I will expand the sphere of my so-called "slippery" use of the term "harangue" -- which you somehow connote only with Nick and his "bombastic ranting" as you say -- to inlude not just the initial Anonymous comment, but Nick, yourself, and anyone else who jumps to malicious, bucolic, or any other conclusions about another individual, based on a pittance of data.”

    Readercon 16: Day 1

  • “Every word of Nicias went home, galling him in his sorest point -- his outrageous vanity; and hardly had the elder statesman concluded his speech, when he sprang to his feet, and burst without preface into a wild harangue, which is a remarkable piece of self-revelation, disclosing with perfect candour the inner motives of the man on whom, more than on any other, the future of Athens depended.”

    Stories from Thucydides

  • “Enthusiastic women never even suspect the difference that there is between the excitement of a popular harangue, which is nothing but a mere passionate outburst, and the unfolding of a didactic process, the aim of which is to prove something and to convince its hearers.”

    Amiel's Journal

  • “In a majority opinion that could be charitably described as a harangue, Justice Earl Warren cited multiple irrelevant cases in which criminal suspects were forcibly deprived of their rights, and then conceded that Miranda was not alleged to have received any such treatment.”

    The Reality Check

  • “CNET blogger Don Reisinger began an 800-word harangue with the words "Has Brian Caulfield of Forbes totally lost it?”

    MacBytes.com

  • “I see a difference between using the punchline without attribution (the ancient rule for commencement speakers has been to "make them suffer") and using the whole opening, including its rather unusual word choices ( "harangue," "slavish in its obedience to ancient custom," "beg for mercy").”

    Is That Legal?: academia Archives

  • “(Later identified by wire services as Rives Miller Grogan of Los Angeles, the man was arrested and charged under a law that makes it a crime to "harangue" inside the Supreme Court.)”

    Newsweek: Drama in the Court

  • “This is not exactly the kind of harangue the current administion and the boys wanted to hear.”

    Think Progress » Buchanan: ‘The Country I Grew Up In’ Was ‘89 or 90 Percent White. I Like That Country’

  • “There's no emotion or umbrage here or even shit-picking attached to telling you that when I read "harangue" I assume "bombastic ranting," which is not my connotation, but a standard and prevailing definition of the word "harangue.”

    Readercon 16: Day 1

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Lists

These user-created lists contain the word ‘harangue’.

Comments

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  • dontcry Sometimes a good harangue can be as satisfying as, say, a 3 or 4 on the you-know-what scale. Jun 2, 2008

  • Prolagus He's a wonderful talker, who has the art of telling you nothing in a great harangue.

    (From Le Misanthrope, by Molière; the original lines are

    C'est un parleur étrange, et qui trouve toujours
    L'art de ne vous rien dire avec de grands discours.    ) Mar 23, 2008

‘harangue’ has been looked up 5926 times, loved by 13 people, added to 131 lists, commented on 2 times, and has a Scrabble score of 12.