At first literal; then to express one’s opinions openly.
1830. O dear, I spoke out in meeting, said she.—Mass. Spy, June 23: from the Newburg Gazette.
1830. [The time] when their children [those of the Bengalese], as with us, shall ‘speak in meeting,’ and ‘relate their experience,’ before they have acquired English enough to ask for a piece of bread and butter, or ideas sufficient to comprehend the difference between one and two.—N. Ames, ‘A Mariner’s Sketches,’ p. 41.
1853. We would fain draw a veil over what followed. But a strict regard for truth compels us to “speak right out in meetin’.”—Durivage, ‘Life Scenes,’ p. 210.
