ventriloquize, v.
(vɛnˈtrɪləkwaɪz)
[f. as prec. + -ize.]
1. intr. To use or practise ventriloquism; to speak or produce sounds in the manner of a ventriloquist; to cast the voice.
| 1844 H. Stephens Bk. Farm I. 297 When the corn-crake..ventriloquises in the corn or grass. 1846 Landor Imag. Conv. Wks. I. 148/2 The horses capered and neighed and ventriloquized right and left. 1855 Kingsley Westw. Ho! ii, Leave thy caverned grumblings,..and discourse eloquence from thy central omphalos, like Pythoness ventriloquising. 1879 Jefferies Wild Life 219 Some say in like manner that the starling ventriloquizes. |
| fig. 1832 Coleridge Table-t. 21 July, I have no admiration for the practice of ventriloquizing through another man's mouth. 1890 Spectator 1 Nov., It looks as if the new Radicalism had entered into his soul and were ventriloquising through his organisation. |
2. trans. To utter as a ventriloquist.
| 1865 Spectator 14 Jan. 45 It is a falsehood ventriloquizing truth. 1871 Farrar Witn. Hist. iv. 131 The little Temple, up which the priests..crept to ventriloquise behind the deceptive statue their lying oracles. 1900 Daily News 18 July 2/5 He not only mimics but ventriloquises his imitations. |
Hence
venˈtriloquizing vbl. n. Also
attrib.| 1805 E. de Acton Nuns of Desert II. 52 Mrs. Mervin's ventriloquising powers, exhibited in the church. |