Crossword clues for declaim
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Declaim \De*claim"\ (d[-e]*kl[=a]m"), v. i. [imp. & p. p. Declaimed (d[-e]*kl[=a]md"); p. pr. & vb. n. Declaiming.] [L. declamare; de- + clamare to cry out: cf. F. d['e]clamer. See Claim.]
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.
-
To speak for rhetorical display; to speak pompously, noisily, or theatrically; to make an empty speech; to rehearse trite arguments in debate; to rant.
Grenville seized the opportunity to declaim on the repeal of the stamp act.
--Bancroft.
Declaim \De*claim"\, v. t.
To utter in public; to deliver in a rhetorical or set manner.
To defend by declamation; to advocate loudly. [Obs.] ``Declaims his cause.''
--South.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
late 14c., from Middle French déclamer and directly from Latin declamare "to practice public speaking, to bluster," from de- intensive prefix + clamare "to cry, shout" (see claim (v.)). At first in English spelled declame, but altered under influence of claim. Related: Declaimed; declaiming.
Wiktionary
vb. 1 To object to something vociferously; to rail against in speech. 2 To recite, e.g., poetry, in a theatrical way; to speak for rhetorical display; to speak pompously, noisily, or theatrically; bemouth; to make an empty speech; to rehearse trite arguments in debate; to rant. 3 To speak rhetorically; to make a formal speech or oration; specifically, to recite a speech, poem, etc., in public as a rhetorical exercise; to practice public speaking.
WordNet
Usage examples of "declaim".
And yet the advocates of Monotheism, Xenophanes and Heraclitus, declaimed only against the making of gods in human form.
The bearded poet, perspiring in furs and boots of reindeer skin, declaimed verses of his own composition about the wild life of the Alaskan mining camps.
One of the household squires was busy gathering plate and food from the floor, Udo Chosen having swept all away as he had seated himself, declaiming loudly that the richness of both was an insult, for a believer ate not from silver, nor took more than hard bread and broth.
The humanitarians will fail for the want of a good social grievance against which they can declaim.
At Berlin, he declaimed against the ignorance, the superstition and the knavery of the Hebrews to whom I had addressed him, drawing meanwhile, for the money they claimed of him, bills of exchange on the Count who laughed, paid, and embraced him when he returned.
Major Gideon Withers, her son, was of the very common type of hearty, loud, portly men, who like to show themselves at militia trainings, and to hear themselves shout orders at musters, or declaim patriotic sentiments at town-meetings and in the General Court.
Poutrincourt and Champlain, returning wounded and weather-beaten from inspecting the coast of New England, to find the buildings of Port Royal, under Lescarbot's care, bright with lights, and an improvised arch bearing the arms of Poutrincourt and De Monts, to be received by Neptune, who, accompanied by a retinue of Tritons, declaimed Alexandrine couplets of praise and welcome, and to sit at the sumptuous table of the Order of Good Times, of which I have just spoken, furnished by this same lawyerpoet's agricultural industry.
To my surprise careful Clara was practicing anachronisms, declaiming about the planets around nearer stars detectable by perturbation of the stellar paths.
Bouthoin declaim some lines of Homer, and beseeches him for the designation of that language.
It was his familiar flourish, an old story to Bibbs, and now jovially declaimed for the edification of Mary Vertrees.
The representatives dared arrest but two robbers and despoilers, who are now free and declaiming against them at Paris.
Amongst ourselves, some have been guilty of that atrociousness, unknown to the Egyptian and Grecian superstitions, of declaiming in express terms, against morality.
Discussing work outside the hut was forbidden and Atwood, purely to annoy Pinker, was declaiming on the suicide of Virginia Woolf, which he held to be the greatest day for English letters since the invention of the printing press.
That is the Martian idea of sarcasm: whenever the atmosphere is thicker than they like they make sinuous backstrokes and declaim, "I could swim!
Silk declaimed extravagantly, "where at least every other man you meet is a spy.