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ventriloquize

American  
[ven-tril-uh-kwahyz] / vɛnˈtrɪl əˌkwaɪz /
especially British, ventriloquise

verb (used with or without object)

ventriloquized, ventriloquizing
  1. to speak or sound in the manner of a ventriloquist.


ventriloquize British  
/ vɛnˈtrɪləˌkwaɪz /

verb

  1. to produce (sounds) in the manner of a ventriloquist

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Etymology

Origin of ventriloquize

1835–45; ventriloqu(y) ( def. ) + -ize

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:

Or I can try to sort of ventriloquize through what I think a prose writer would do.

From Salon Apr. 13, 2023

But Wearing does something startling: She gets the mother to ventriloquize the boys and the boys their mother.

From Washington Post Feb. 18, 2022

Why not experiment, mess around a little, throw your voice, ventriloquize, pick up one form and put it down and move on to another?

From New York Times Dec. 7, 2021

To engage in krivlyanya, the noun form of krivlyatsa, means to be artificial—to ventriloquize someone else instead of being yourself.

From Slate Jun. 2, 2017

And then he would ventriloquize once more to himself.

From Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 60, No. 369, July 1846 by Various

The site also featured several ventriloquized posts from Tiny Pinocchio telling his life story:

From Slate Jul. 15, 2023

His verified Twitter account, however, ventriloquized his criticism of Sen. Kamala Harris.

From Slate Aug. 18, 2020

“Well,” Jacob’s better angel ventriloquized, “I’d love to see it someday.”

From The New Yorker May 30, 2016

In 1999, Mr. Ritz ventriloquized a memoir called “From These Roots,” in the voice of Aretha Franklin.

From New York Times Oct. 29, 2014

And the woman came off victor, for Fritz ventriloquized no further, and the passengers had nothing to say, having no desire to get plastered up with freshly prepared pumpkin pie.

From No title by

“I so much enjoyed imitating his voice, almost ventriloquizing him, trying to hit his style. He has obsessed me.”

From New York Times Mar. 29, 2023

The Yes Men refer to their practice as “identity correction,” ventriloquizing what corporate culture would say if a truth serum made it display its real self.

From New York Times Feb. 17, 2022

By ventriloquizing a woman to voice his most provocative punch lines, he seems to concede that he might not possess the authority to pull off the jokes, or the argument, on his own.

From The New Yorker Nov. 8, 2019

At the very least, it demonstrates that Lacey is capable of ventriloquizing well beyond the quirky-insightful voice of “Nobody is Ever Missing.”

From Washington Post Jun. 6, 2017

But all further explanation was cut short by a horrible unearthly noise, like a sepulchre ventriloquizing: "PARCHMENT!—PARCHMENT!—PARCHMENT!"

From The Cloister and the Hearth by Reade, Charles

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