Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun One who holds forth; a haranguer; a preacher.

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

  • noun One who speaks in public; an haranguer; a preacher. See hold forth (b) under hold.

Etymologies

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Examples

  • I will, for your sake, replied the holder-forth; but then he shall give me three livres, French money, for each pick and choose.

    Five books of the lives, heroic deeds and sayings of Gargantua and his son Pantagruel 2002

  • I will, for your sake, replied the holder-forth; but then he shall give me three livres, French money, for each pick and choose.

    Five books of the lives, heroic deeds and sayings of Gargantua and his son Pantagruel 2002

  • I sometimes had to open with a paper-cutter the pages which had shut up for two hundred years that knowledge which the ponderous volume, like any solemn holder-forth whom no one listens to, pretended to be distributing abroad from its place of dignity on the shelf.

    The Book-Hunter A New Edition, with a Memoir of the Author John Hill Burton

  • England, I will endeavour by some means or other to force myself into an acquaintance with some of their leading men, and more especially with some of the most zealous and wonderful women among them; and this point once gained, I doubt not, but before my stock is half spent, I shall receive a call to be pastor or holder-forth in some congregation or other -- why dost smile?

    History of English Humour, Vol. 1 (of 2) With an Introduction upon Ancient Humour Alfred Guy Kingan L'Estrange 1873

  • Dunstane: now a story; a question opening new routes, sharp sketches of known personages; a paradox shot by laughter as soon as uttered; and all so smoothly; not a shadow of the dominant holder-forth or a momentary prospect of dead flats; the mellow ring of appositeness being the concordant note of deliveries running linked as they flashed, and a tolerant philosophy of the sage in the world recurrently the keynote.

    Complete Project Gutenberg Works of George Meredith George Meredith 1868

  • Emma Dunstane: now a story; a question opening new routes, sharp sketches of known personages; a paradox shot by laughter as soon as uttered; and all so smoothly; not a shadow of the dominant holder-forth or a momentary prospect of dead flats; the mellow ring of appositeness being the concordant note of deliveries running linked as they flashed, and a tolerant philosophy of the sage in the world recurrently the keynote.

    Diana of the Crossways — Volume 4 George Meredith 1868

  • I will, for your sake, replied the holder-forth; but then he shall give me three livres, French money, for each pick and choose.

    Gargantua and Pantagruel, Illustrated, Book 4 Fran��ois Rabelais 1518

  • The talk was on high levels and low; an enchantment to Emma Dunstane: now a story; a question opening new routes, sharp sketches of known personages; a paradox shot by laughter as soon as uttered; and all so smoothly; not a shadow of the dominant holder-forth or a momentary prospect of dead flats; the mellow ring of appositeness being the concordant note of deliveries running linked as they flashed, and a tolerant philosophy of the sage in the world recurrently the keynote.

    Diana of the Crossways — Complete George Meredith 1868

  • And now, can any sober person think it reason able, that the public devotions of a whole congregation should be under the conduct and at the mercy of a pert, empty, conceited holder-forth, whose chief (if not sole) intent is to vaunt his spiritual clack, and (as I may so speak) to pray prizes; whereas prayer is a duty that recommends itself to the acceptance of Almighty God, by no other qualification so much, as by the profoundest humility, and the lowest esteem that a man can possibly have of himself?

    Sermons Preached Upon Several Occasions. Vol. I. 1634-1716 1823

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