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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

Before a kid can read or write, message tees provide an opportunity for a parent to ventriloquize at whim.

From Slate ● Aug. 31, 2018

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

Priebus failed in his mission and doesn’t appear to have been ventriloquized anonymously before the real story came to light.

From Slate ● May 2, 2017

“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

When Leroy, explaining the philosophy behind his T-shirts, says he’s “forcing people to confront words and images they normally avoid,” you hear him ventriloquizing for Hunter.

From New York Times ● Feb. 21, 2023

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

In this environment, Rhodes has become adept at ventriloquizing many people at once.

From New York Times ● May 5, 2016

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 Charles Reade

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