Dictionary

hold forth en · VERB

Pronunciation

• (Australia) audio

Meanings

1. (transitive) To extend or offer, propose.
2. (intransitive) To talk at great length.
   • Warmed to the woman somewhat, I admit it. She holds forth like a man and smokes myrrhy cigarettes through a rhino-horn holder. 2004, David Mitchell, Cloud Atlas, London: Sceptre (Hodder and Stoughton), →ISBN, page 55:
   • The girls all liked to hear him talk. They often gathered in a little circle while he sat on a bench, and held forth to them, laughing. 1913, D[avid] H[erbert] Lawrence, chapter 5, in Sons and Lovers, London: Duckworth & Co. […], →OCLC:
   • I bestrode the courtroom entranceway, holding forth on my merits to the assembled press.
   • Behind him an excitable Frenchman was holding forth in declamatory style to a group of astonished residents. 1908, R. Forsythe, “Our Hippopotamus Hunt”, in The Wide World Magazine, volume XX, London: George Newnes, Ltd., page 400:
   • […]they did not like him coming round of an evening and drinking weak whisky-and-water while he held forth on railway debentures and corporation loans. 1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter II, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:

Forms

Synonyms

expatiate · harangue

Translations (3)

de verbreiten (talk at great length) · ru разглаго́льствовать (talk at great length) · es hablar largo y tendido (talk at great length)