[f. SPEECH sb.1]
† 1. trans. To drive out by means of speech. Obs.–1
1654. Gayton, Pleas. Notes, I. i. 67. Doe but recount (for I must speech out this timorousnesse from thy head and heart).
2. To say or state in a speech or speeches. rare.
1682. T. Flatman, Heraclitus Ridens, No. 54 (1713), II. 90. The Bills of Exclusion and Association (whatever was Speech’d or Resolv’d to the contrary) are not now thought [etc.].
a. 1734. North, Lives (1826), I. 229. In speeching to the jury, one and the same matter, over and over again, the waste of time would be so great that … there would scarce be an end.
3. To make a speech to; to address in a speech; dial., to speak or talk to. Also with compl.
1818. Moore, Fudge Fam. Paris, ii. 35. Your Lordship, having speeched to death Some hundreds of your fellow-men, Next speeched to Sovereigns’ ears,—and … at last Speeched down the Sovereign of Belfast.
1864. Carlyle, Fredk. Gt., XV. viii. IV. 119. Upon which I immediately turned about to our own Regiment; speeched them, and made them huzzah.
1877–86. in Linc. glossaries.
4. intr. To make or deliver a speech or speeches. Also with it. Now rare.
(a) 1684. Wood, Life, 8 Nov. Mr. Charles Hickman … speech’d it in laudem Thomae Bodley in the Schola linguarum.
c. 1720. Fable Widow & Cat, iv. in Prior’s Wks. (1907), 383. But in a saucy manner He Thus Speech’d it like a Lechmere: ‘Must I [etc.].’
a. 1734. North, Lives (1826), I. 230. He was positive not to permit more than one counsel of a side to speech it to the jury.
(b) 1710. Acc. Last Distemper T. Whigg, I. 9. He stood up upon the Bulks in Westminster-Hall, and speech’d against him from Morning till Night.
1821. Blackw. Mag., IX. 82. Lambton speeching till the lights are gone.
1824. in Spirit Public Jrnls. (1825), 203. Tom Moore to Lord Lansdown is tipsily speeching.
1835. Fraser’s Mag., XI. 612. He was fêted and speeched unto at divers and sundry towns.
1864. A. Thomson, in Remin. (1904), I. xviii. 299. Yesterday I speeched well at St. Andrews.
b. To direct a speech or speeches at a person. Also dial., to speak with some one.
1826. Scott, Woodst., xxi. Have I not been speeched at by their orators.
1888. K. Saunders, Diamonds, 30/1. He tells o’ Him by the life he leads, or else he hasn’t speeched wi’ me much.
