v. [f. SPEECH sb.1 + -IFY.
Noted by Bartlett (1848), as ‘a rather low word, and seldom heard except among bar-room politicians.’ In ordinary use, together with its derivatives, chiefly employed as a humorous form or with depreciatory suggestion.]
1. intr. To make or deliver a speech or speeches; to harangue or ‘hold forth’; to speak or talk at some length or with some degree of formality.
1723. [implied in SPEECHIFYING vbl. sb.].
1762. Foote, Orator, I. Wks. 1799, I. 193. And have you speechified yet? Ibid., 194. I did speechify once at a vestry.
1806. Naval Chron., XV. 19. Jack made … attempts to speechify.
1833. Moore, Mem. (1854), VI. 341. Lord Lansdowne began to speechify to the German and Frenchman.
1862. Thackeray, Philip, vii. We were free to speechify,… and be as young as we liked.
2. trans. To address in a speech or speeches.
1862. Daily Tel., 9 Sept. Who entertained the crazy egotist Wilkes,… and ‘ovated’ and speechified him?
Hence Speechifying ppl. a.
1803. J. Foster, in Ryland, Life (1846), I. 247. The man who has just conquered his speechifying antagonist.
1817. Mar. Edgeworth, Th. on Bores, Wks. 1848, IX. 213. Of the common parliamentary bore there be two orders; the silent, and the speechifying.
1828. Miss Mitford, Village, Ser. III. (1863), 109. There was also … a Mrs. Harden, speechifying and civil, and a Miss Harden, her daughter, civiller still.
