verb. (American).—To make a speech.
1877. BESANT and RICE, The Golden Butterfly, xxvi. I am not, he said, going to ORATE. You did not come here, I guess, to hear me pay out chin-music.
1883. Referee, 15 July, 2, 4. There was a panic among the two thousand people who were being ORATED by Mr. Ballington Booth, the general’s son.
1888. Fortnightly Review, N.S. xliii. 848. Men are apt … to ORATE on any topic that chances to be uppermost.
