perorate
Americanverb (used without object)
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to speak at length; make a long, usually grandiloquent speech.
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to bring a speech to a close with a formal conclusion.
verb
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to speak at length, esp in a formal manner
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to conclude a speech or sum up, esp with a formal recapitulation
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of perorate
First recorded in 1595–1605; from Latin perōrātus, past participle of perōrāre; see origin at per-, orate
Explanation
To perorate is to give a long, pompous speech. If you were expecting your teacher's remarks at the beginning of class to be a quick announcement, your heart will sink when he begins to perorate. There are two ways to use this somewhat old-fashioned word. The first is as a near-synonym of "orate," although to perorate is to give an even more flowery, pretentious speech than a mere oration. If you perorate when it's your turn to comment at a town meeting, it's unlikely you'll be taken seriously. An older meaning of perorate is to end a long speech with a summary of your main points.
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
“I’ll just look into my soft drink and listen to someone else perorate about me,” Sting said.
From Washington Post
So they perorate and speculate; and call on the Friends of Law, when the question is not Law or No-Law, but Life or No-Life.
From The French Revolution by Thomas Carlyle
In vain does Lafayette fret, indignant; and perorate and strive: Patriots in the passion of terror, bellow round the Royal Carriage; it is one bellowing sea of Patriot terror run frantic.
From The French Revolution by Thomas Carlyle
Feuillans, including almost the whole Constitutional Respectability of France, perorate nightly from their tribune; correspond through all Post-offices; denouncing unquiet Jacobinism; trusting well that its time is nigh done.
From The French Revolution by Thomas Carlyle
And church and state pause in this made vortex of chaos to prate of the ills of pugilism; to legislate and perorate anent bloodless boxing bouts; to prosecute a brace of harmless pugs.
From Brann the Iconoclast — Volume 12 by William Cowper Brann
He perorated: Recent events in Spanish Morocco were far from reassuring for the Spaniards.
From Time Magazine Archive
“Who are you,” he perorated, “and what am I, that I should put my neck into the rope at your bidding?”
From The God of His Fathers: Tales of the Klondyke by Jack London
And in that day," he perorated, "how will the Fitu-Ivan be known in the great world?
From A Son Of The Sun by Jack London
Suppressing the receptions which annoyed her, she gave none but men's dinners, where she perorated and paraded, and where, being the only woman present, she had no rivals to fear.
From Marie Antoinette and the Downfall of Royalty by Arthur Léon, baron Imbert de Saint-Amand
He still perorated, still posed like a shop-walker, still behaved like a puppet, with its pulling strings in plainest evidence.
From In the Mist of the Mountains by J. Macfarlane
And in the corner of the paper a thumb-nail sketch of himself, perorating, with a garland of capital I's round his neck.
From The Marriage of William Ashe by Mrs. Humphry Ward
He had listened to Horne Tooke perorating "hanging matters" at the Corresponding Society; he had seen the "electric ruby" circulating at its dinners; he had witnessed the collapse of Thomas Hardy's painstaking and methodical organisation.
From Shelley, Godwin and Their Circle by Henry Noel Brailsford
No high-perched, privileged and proud possessor Of lineal vantage he; Of perorating witchery no professor, Or casuist subtlety.
From Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 101, October 17, 1891 by Various
Whilst other people were promenading or perorating, Trochu, in his room at the Louvre, was receiving telegram after telegram informing him that the Germans were now fast closing round the city.
From My Days of Adventure The Fall of France, 1870-71 by Ernest Alfred Vizetelly
Monsieur Homais came out of his shop, and Mere Lefrangois, in the midst of the crowd, seemed to be perorating.
From Madame Bovary by Eleanor Marx Aveling
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