a. [f. SPEECH sb.1 Cf. OE. sprǽcful.] Full of speech; possessing the power of speech; loquacious, talkative.
1842. Mrs. Browning, Grk. Chr. Poets, 83. One speechful voice among the silent.
1861. G. E. Maunsell, Poems, 246.
| Like a blest influence, | |
| Speechful, though dumb, | |
| Soul unto sister soul | |
| Woo it to come. |
1873. Mrs. Whitney, Other Girls, xxvi. She had … carried him to the nursery, got him on her knee in a speechful condition.
b. Of the eyes, etc.: Full of expression; expressive, speaking. Also const. of (some quality).
a. 1849. J. C. Mangan, Poems (1859), 83. I well could read her speechful eye.
1865. E. Burritt, Walk to Land’s End, xii. 407. He could not have … made the expression of the central face more speechful of sadness.
1872. Blackie, Lays Highl., 18. Dost thou see the speechful eyne Of the fond and faithful creature Sorrowed with the swelling brine?
Hence Speechfulness.
1880. Meredith, Tragic Com. (1881), 30. This man’s face was the born orator’s,… the animated mouth … stamped for speechfulness and enterprise.
190[?]. Buck’s Handbk. Med. Sci., I. 414 (Cent. Suppl.). Sensory aphasia is … in the beginning … the aphasia of comparative speechfulness, while motor aphasia in the beginning is usually absolute speechlessness.
