loquacious, a.
(ləʊˈkweɪʃəs)
[f. L. loquāci-, loquāx (f. loqu-ī to speak) + -ous.]
1. Given to much talking; talkative.
| 1667 Milton P.L. x. 161 To whom sad Eve..Confessing soon, yet not before her Judge Bold or loquacious, thus abasht repli'd. 1712 Steele Spect. No. 296 ¶1 The chief Exercise of the Female loquacious Faculty. 1725 Pope Odyss. xix. 110 Loquacious insolent! she cries, forbear. 1791 Cowper Iliad ii. 253 Thersites only of loquacious tongue Ungovern'd. 1814 D'Israeli Quarrels Auth. (1867) 338 The new..philosophy insisted that men should be less loquacious, but more laborious. 1849 Macaulay Hist. Eng. iv. I. 460 He was not loquacious: but, when he was forced to speak in public, his natural eloquence moved the envy of practised rhetoricians. 1901 Longm. Mag. June 152 Abel, in an unusually loquacious mood, repeated his question. |
2. transf. Of birds, water, or the like: Chattering, babbling. Chiefly poet.
| 1697 Dryden Virg. Georg. iii. 654 He fills his Maw with Fish, or with loquacious Frogs. ― æneid xii. 694 The black Swallow..To furnish her loquacious Nest with Food. 1708 J. Philips Cyder ii. 445 Blind British bards, with volant touch Traverse loquacious strings. 1725 Pope Odyss. v. 86 The chough, the sea-mew, the loquacious crow. 1888 Barrie When a Man's Single (1900) 66/2 For a moment the water was loquacious as..punts shot past. |
Hence loˈquaciously adv., loˈquaciousness.
| 1727 Bailey vol. II, Loquaciousness, talkativeness. 1766 Fordyce Serm. Yng. Wom. (1767) I. vi. 220 She preserves the due mean between taciturnity and loquaciousness. 1807 G. Chalmers Caledonia I. i. i. 18 The taciturnity of history, and the loquaciousness of archaiology. 1854 Hawthorne Eng. Note-Bks. (1879) I. 83 The rooks were talking together very loquaciously. |