Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Same as ventriloquial.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective Of or pertaining to a ventriloquist or ventriloquism.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective Of or pertaining to a ventriloquist or ventriloquism.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Latin ventriloquus a ventriloquist; venter the belly + loqui, past participle locutus, to speak. See ventral and loquacious.

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Examples

  • Then from the prostrate body of the witch-doctor, whose legs and arms were twisted as in agony, whose dribbling mouth was closed like a vise, came a ventriloquous falsetto:

    Witch-Doctors Charles Beadle

  • His notes had a ventriloquous effect, his beak was scarcely parted, and it was only by the trembling of the feathers of his throat that we were sure the song came from him.

    Bird Day; How to prepare for it Charles Almanzo Babcock

  • Is not their hum ventriloquous like that of the turkey?

    The Natural History of Selborne, Vol. 1 Gilbert White 1756

  • However, while they are playing about on the wing they certainly make a loud piping with their mouths: but whether that bleating or humming is ventriloquous, or proceeds from the motion of their wings, I cannot say; but this I know, that when this noise happens, the bird is always descending, and his wings are violently agitated.

    The Natural History of Selborne, Vol. 1 Gilbert White 1756

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