hold forth

English

Pronunciation

• Audio (General Australian):

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Verb

hold forth (third-person singular simple present holds forth, present participle holding forth, simple past and past participle held forth)

1. (transitive) To extend or offer, propose.
2. (intransitive) To talk at great length.

   Synonyms: expatiate, harangue

   • 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

talk at great length

• German: verbreiten (de) (reflexive)
• Russian: разглаго́льствовать (ru) impf (razglagólʹstvovatʹ)
• Spanish: hablar largo y tendido