full-throated

English

WOTD – 21 August 2020

Etymology

From full + throated.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˌfʊlˈθɹəʊtɪd/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˌfʊlˈθɹoʊtəd/, [-ɾəd]

• Audio (GA)

  (file)

• Hyphenation: full-throat‧ed

Adjective

full-throated (comparative more full-throated, superlative most full-throated)

1. (also figuratively of noises by objects) Using all the power of one's voice; communicated loudly or vociferously.
   • 1819, John Keats, “Ode to a Nightingale”, in Lamia, Isabella, the Eve of St. Agnes, and Other Poems, London: […] [Thomas Davison] for Taylor and Hessey, […], published 1820, →OCLC, stanza 1, page 107, lines 7–10:

     [T]hou, light-winged Dryad of the trees, / In some melodious plot / Of beechen green, and shadows numberless, / Singest of summer in full-throated ease.

   • 1866, George Eliot [pseudonym; Mary Ann Evans], chapter VII, in Felix Holt, the Radical […], volume I, Edinburgh, London: William Blackwood and Sons, →OCLC, page 189:

     The laughter was not quite so full-throated as before. Such excessive cleverness was a little Satanic.

   • 1894 May, Rudyard Kipling, “Mowgli’s Brothers”, in The Jungle Book, London, New York, N.Y.: Macmillan and Co., published June 1894, →OCLC, page 5:

     The purr grew louder, and ended in the full-throated 'Aaarh!' of the tiger's charge.

   • 1919, John Reed, “The Peasants’ Congress”, in Ten Days That Shook the World, New York, N.Y.: Boni and Liveright, →OCLC, page 309:

     Amid the crashing full-throated shouts of the soldiers, the peasants formed in line, unfurling the great red banner of the Executive Committee of the All-Russian Peasants' Soviets, embroidered newly in gold, "Long live the union of the revolutionary and toiling masses!"

   • 1940, Thomas Wolfe, “The Drunken Beggar on Horseback”, in Edward Aswell, editor, You Can’t Go Home Again, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Row, →OCLC; republished as You Can’t Go Home Again (eBook no. 0700231h.html)‎^[1], Australia: Project Gutenberg Australia, August 2019, archived from the original on 24 April 2020, book I (The Native’s Return):

     The heavy motor warmed up with a full-throated roar, then there was a grinding clash of gears, and George felt the old house tremble under him as the truck swung out into the street and thundered off.

2. (figuratively) Showing strong feelings.

   Synonyms: emphatic, forceful, vehement

   • 2002 February 9, Jonathan Jones, “Twenty Jackies, Andy Warhol (1964)”, in Alan Rusbridger, editor, The Guardian‎^[2], London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 15 January 2015:

     [Andy] Warhol's portraits of Jackie [Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis] could not be more full-throated in their sorrow because they are so obviously felt, a silent agony.

   • 2015 October 6, “More Than a Flag”, in The Harvard Crimson‎^[3], Cambridge, Mass.: Trustees of the Harvard Crimson, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 22 May 2017:

     Governor [Nikki] Hayley's full-throated insistence that the [Confederate] flag be removed—she called it a "deeply offensive symbol of a brutally offensive past"—played an instrumental role in building consensus in the state's Republican Party.

   • 2016 November 9, Aaron McKenna, “Opinion: Donald Trump’s victory is the shock therapy our broken democracies need”, in TheJournal.ie‎^[4], archived from the original on 6 December 2019:

     [Donald] Trump never received the full throated backing of his party colleagues and mainstream consensus until about 2am last night was that he was a joke.

   • 2017 April 23, Alissa J[ohannsen] Rubin, “Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen advance in French election”, in The New York Times‎^[5], New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 3 June 2020:

     The result was a full-throated rebuke of France's traditional mainstream parties, setting the country on an uncertain path in an election that could also decide the future of the European Union.

3. (euphemistic, dated) Of a woman: having ample breasts.

   Synonyms: buxom, curvaceous; see also Thesaurus:busty

   • 1859 January–December, Oliver Wendell Holmes [Sr.], chapter III, in The Professor at the Breakfast-Table; […], Boston, Mass.: Ticknor and Fields, published 1860, →OCLC, page 67:

     There she sits, at the very opposite corner, just as far off as accident could put her from this handsome fellow, by whose side she ought, of course, to be sitting. [...] Tawny-haired, amber-eyed, full-throated, skin as white as a blanched almond.

   • 1869, Bret Harte, “[Sketches.] Miggles.”, in The Luck of Roaring Camp and Other Sketches (The Riverside Library), Boston, Mass., New York, N.Y.: Houghton Mifflin Company […], →OCLC, page 43:

     And this was Miggles! this bright-eyed, full-throated young woman, whose wet gown of coarse blue stuff could not hide the beauty of the feminine curves to which it clung; [...]

Derived terms

• full-throatedly

Translations

using all the power of one's voice

• French: retentissant (fr)
• German: vollkehlig
• Irish: lánghlórach

showing strong feelings

having ample breasts — see buxom