perorate, v.
(ˈpɛrəreɪt)
[f. ppl. stem of L. perōrāre to speak at length or to the close, f. per- 1 + ōrāre to speak.]
1. intr. To speak at length, deliver an oration.
| 1603 Sir C. Heydon Jud. Astrol. xxii. 493 Now hauing perorated (as he thinkes) sufficiently, he beginnes to growe to a conclusion. 1620 Brent tr. Sarpi's Counc. Trent ii. 125 They should demand of the Pope, some man of worth to perorate against the accused. 1827 Carlyle Misc., Richter (1869) 4 Dr. Gabler and Dr. Spazier were perorating over the grave. 1873 M. Arnold Lit. & Dogma (1876) 331 They will let the intelligent Unitarian perorate for ever about the Atonement if he likes. |
b. trans. To utter with declamation, declaim.
| 1681 S. Colvil Whigs Supplic. (1751) 119 Thus did he perorat his fliting. 1850 Carlyle Latter-d. Pamph. ii. (1872) 60 A foolish stump-orator, perorating..mere benevolences. |
2. intr. To sum up or conclude a speech or oration; to utter the peroration of a speech.
| 1808 De Quincey Let. to Sister 20 June in ‘H. A. Page’ Life (1877) I. 140, I summed up or perorated by impressing on his misguided mind that [etc.]. 1818 Hobhouse Hist. Illustr. (ed. 2) 336 The following innocent conclusion with which Visconti perorates. 1855 Browning Old Pictures in Florence xxxiv, How we shall prologuize, how we shall perorate. |
Hence ˈperorating ppl. a.
| 1897 Daily News 17 Mar. 6/4 [He] has that besetting sin of perorating speakers—he drops his voice at the close of his periods. |