[f. VENTRILOQU-Y + -ISH: cf. next.]
1. The art or practice of speaking or producing sounds in such a manner that the voice appears to proceed from some person or object other than the speaker, and usually at some distance from him. (The common use.)
1797. Encycl. Brit. (ed. 3), XVIII. 639/2. It is with no great propriety that … their art [is called] ventriloquism, since they appear more frequently to speak … from the roof or distant corners of the room, than from their own mouths or their own bellies.
1826. Scott, Diary, 12 Jan. Mathews … confirms my idea of ventriloquism (which is an absurd word), as being merely the art of imitating sounds at a greater or a less distance.
1832. Brewster, Nat. Magic, vii. 167. This uncertainty with respect to the direction of sound is the foundation of the art of ventriloquism.
1856. Kane, Arct. Expl., II. xii. 126. Their deceptions are simply vocal, a change of voice, and perhaps a limited profession of ventriloquism.
transf. c. 1819. Coleridge, Rem. (1836), II. 275. I call it ventriloquism, because Sejanus is a puppet, out of which the poet [Jonson] makes his own voice appear to come.
1874. Fortn. Rev., Feb., 244. We consider the poem [‘Maud’] about as striking an instance as could be named of what we call poetical ventriloquism.
b. An instance of this; a ventriloquial sound.
1839. T. Beale, Nat. Hist. Sperm Whale, 302. All our talent and ingenuity in these ventriloquisms were thrown away.
1878. Hardy, Ret. Native, V. vi. Soft strange ventriloquisms came from holes in the ground, hollow stalks,… and other crannies.
2. The fact or practice of speaking or appearing to speak from the abdomen.
1818. in Todd.
1846. Trench, Mirac., v. (1862), 156, note. The notion of a ventriloquism such as this, of a spirit having his lodging in the body of a man.
1852. Conybeare & Howson, St. Paul, I. ix. (1862), 276. It was usual for the prophetic spirit to make itself known by an internal muttering or ventriloquism.
