hold forth
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English[edit]
Pronunciation[edit]
Audio (AU) (file)
Verb[edit]
hold forth (third-person singular simple present holds forth, present participle holding forth, simple past and past participle held forth)
- (transitive) To extend or offer, propose.
- (intransitive) To talk at great length.
- 1908, R. Forsythe, “Our Hippopotamus Hunt”, in The Wide World Magazine, volume XX, London: George Newnes, Ltd., page 400:
- Behind him an excitable Frenchman was holding forth in declamatory style to a group of astonished residents.
- 1913, D[avid] H[erbert] Lawrence, chapter 5, in Sons and Lovers, London: Duckworth & Co. […], →OCLC:
- The girls all liked to hear him talk. They often gathered in a little circle while he sat on a bench, and held forth to them, laughing.
- 1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter II, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:
- […] they did not like him coming round of an evening and drinking weak whisky-and-water while he held forth on railway debentures and corporation loans.
- 2004, David Mitchell, Cloud Atlas, London: Hodder and Stoughton, →ISBN, page 55:
- Warmed to the woman somewhat, I admit it. She holds forth like a man and smokes myrrhy cigarettes through a rhino-horn holder.
Translations[edit]
talk at great length
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