speak
/spiːk
/verb (past spoke /spəʊk/; past participle spoken /ˈspəʊk(ə)n/) [no object]
1Say something in order to convey information or to express a feeling: in his agitation he was unable to speak she refused to speak about the incident...
- I stood silent, unable to speak as the information slipped into my mind.
- During their gigs, the six-some regularly distributes pamphlets of information and speaks on stage about causes they feel strongly about.
- Israel was quiet, as if digesting that bit of information and then he spoke, harshly and firmly.
Synonyms
talk, say (anything/something);
utter, state, declare, tell, voice, express, pronounce, articulate, enunciate, vocalize, verbalize
rare enounce
1.1Have a conversation: last time we spoke, you told me you couldn’t do the job I’ll speak to him if he rings up...
- Maybe I would have never spoken to you, but that's because you don't speak to anyone.
- Oh how I wish now that I had spoken to you, instead of waiting for you to speak to me.
- She hadn't really tired to speak to Mark but then Mark hadn't spoken to her or shown any interest in talking at all to her since they had kissed.
Synonyms
have a conversation, talk, have a talk, have a discussion, converse, communicate, chat, have a chat, pass the time of day, have a word, gossip, make conversation
informal have a confab, chew the fat/rag
British informal natter, have a chinwag
North American informal shoot the breeze
rare confabulate
1.2 [with object] Utter (a word, message, etc.): patients copy words spoken by the therapist...
- Times change, priorities change, but as Faust speaks these words his real message is clear.
- Tanis looked at Merlin without a word, but the expression on his face spoke a clear message.
- ‘I love you’ her voice trembled as she spoke the three little words he had been dying to hear.
1.3 [with object] Communicate in or be able to communicate in (a specified language): my mother spoke Russian...
- They were also very intelligent and able to speak every language naturally.
- Prospect New Town, for its part, speaks the language of community and celebrates authenticity.
- Do you know which ones are able to speak the language you know?
1.4Make a speech or contribute to a debate: twenty thousand people attended to hear him speak...
- During his long speech, he finally speaks about the silence in which he has brought up his beloved son.
- I also heard him speak at a lecture, which I found inspirational.
- And in hearing her speak, I think she comes off very differently.
Synonyms
give a speech, give a talk, talk, lecture, give a lecture, deliver an address, give a sermon, hold forth, discourse, expound, expatiate, orate, harangue, sermonize, pontificate
informal spout, spiel, speechify, preachify, jaw, sound off, drone on
1.5 (speak for) Express the views or position of (another): he claimed to speak for the majority of local people...
- However, as reps and staff they must present the collective views of the organisation when speaking for it and be held publicly accountable.
- It would also place a larger tax burden on all workers, including the ones she claims to be speaking for.
- And she does have a right to speak, but not to claim she's speaking for others in these roles.
Synonyms
represent, speak on behalf of, act for, act on behalf of, appear for, intercede for, express the views of, act as spokesman for, act as spokeswoman for, act as spokesperson for
advocate, champion, uphold, defend, stand up for, support, speak in support of, promote, recommend, urge, back, endorse, sponsor, espouse
1.6Convey one’s views or position indirectly: speaking through his solicitor, he refused to join the debate...
- Zeynab will be speaking through an interpreter.
- I… experienced a shift in awareness when reading some of the longer passages [to the court]. At times I felt like those men were speaking through me.
- Thank you, Sammy, for speaking through this untalented man.
1.7 (speak to) Answer (a question) or address (an issue or problem): we should be disappointed if the report did not speak to the issue of literacy
1.8 (speak of) Mention or discuss in speech or writing: the books speak of betrayal...
- He begins at the beginning when he speaks of the act of writing.
- Gray couldn't keep the pride out of his voice when he spoke of his eldest son writing a book.
- It resembled the kind of cities she saw in books that spoke of what the future would look like.
Synonyms
mention, make mention of, talk about, discuss, refer to, make reference to, bring in, introduce, remark on, comment on, allude to, advert to, deal with, treat
2 (speak to) Talk to in order to reprove or advise: she tried to speak to Seb about his drinking...
- Mr Webb advised Mr Ball to speak to the staff and after Mr Simonet left he did so in an effort to persuade them to stay with CMSD.
- Be a good mummy and give Nicky the phone so he can speak to the bad boy and make the bad boy be nice again.
- At these moments, the girls spoke to me somewhat more formally and more seriously.
Synonyms
reprimand, rebuke, admonish, chastise, chide, upbraid, reprove, reproach, scold, remonstrate with, berate, take to task, pull up, castigate, lambaste, read someone the Riot Act, give someone a piece of one's mind, haul over the coals, lecture, criticize, censure
informal tell off, give someone a talking-to, give someone a telling-off, dress down, give someone a dressing-down, give someone an earful, give someone a roasting, give someone a rocket, give someone a rollicking, rap, rap over the knuckles, slap someone's wrist, send someone away with a flea in their ear, let someone have it, bawl out, give someone hell, come down on, blow up, pitch into, lay into, lace into, give someone a caning, put on the mat, slap down, blast, rag, keelhaul
British informal tick off, have a go at, carpet, monster, give someone a mouthful, tear someone off a strip, give someone what for, give someone stick, wig, give someone a wigging, give someone a row, row
North American informal chew out, ream out
British vulgar slang bollock, give someone a bollocking
North American vulgar slang chew someone's ass, ream someone's ass
dated call down, rate, give someone a rating, trim
rare reprehend, objurgate
2.1Talk to in order to give or obtain information: he had spoken to the police...
- She went on to say that when she spoke to the police she tried to help them by telling the truth.
- Ellen dashed from the convertible and went to speak to the police.
- They said they wanted to speak to me and she said, ‘He doesn't want to speak to the police’.
2.2Appeal or relate to: the story spoke to him directly...
- It has a regional appeal that speaks to Newfoundlanders but also to a heroic struggle with the harsh Canadian environment, much in the way that Nanook of the North did a decade earlier.
- Come to Arizona, a land defined by its wild beauty, its simple openness, its elemental, eternal appeal that speaks to the child in us all.
- If you're between the ages of 32 and 48, and this story spoke to you, I very much want to hear from you.
3(Of behaviour, an object, etc.) serve as evidence for something: everything in the house spoke of hard times and neglect [with object]: his frame spoke tiredness...
- It was his evidence that he spoke as loudly in the operating room that day as he did in the witness box - which would have been a fairly loud voice for such a setting.
- The evidence speaks frequently of the 10.01 block and that is the first item in the left-hand column at 529.
- Our case speaks in terms of evidence of identification being excluded if it would be unfair or if it was undertaken unfairly to the appellant.
Synonyms
indicate, mean, suggest, show, denote, display, demonstrate, be evidence of, register, reflect, reveal, betray, evince, disclose, exhibit, manifest;
express, convey, signify, impart, bespeak, communicate, bear out, attest, testify to, prove, evidence
literary betoken
3.1 [with object and infinitive or adverbial] archaic Show (someone or something) to be in a particular state or to possess a certain quality: she had seen nothing that spoke him of immoral habits...
- She had never seen any thing that betrayed him to be unprincipled or unjust, anything that spoke him of irreligious or immoral habits.
- Jane Austen's Darcy does not (I quote directly from Chapter 36 of Pride and Prejudice) have in his manner anything that spoke him of irreligious or immoral habits.
4(Of a musical instrument or other object) make a sound when functioning: the gun spoke again insufficient air circulates for the pipes to speak...
- Mozart raises the accompaniment to share some of that interest, so that the violin and the piano speak on relatively equal terms.
- The remarkable thing, though, is that both instruments speak with a distinctive voice that is recognisably the same.
- It's silence in remembrance of a talented, haunted man, but he deserves a eulogy, and his guitar speaks better than anyone ever could.
4.1(Of a hound) bark.Every so often retrain the "Speak" command to keep this reinforcement....
- Tell him to speak and then wait for him to speak.
Phrases
not to speak of
something speaks for itself
speak for oneself
speak for yourself
speak in tongues
speak one's mind
speak volumes
speak well (or ill) of
—— to speak of
Phrasal verbs
speak out (or up)
speak up
speak up for
Derivatives
speakable
- He said: ‘It's about taking the unspeakable and making it speakable, It's about recognising that unless you ask you don't know.
- And thus it is speakable or tangible only as perceived in the changes it effects.
- Such threats aim to define the limits of the public sphere by setting limits on the speakable.
Origin
Old English sprecan, later specan, of West Germanic origin; related to Dutch spreken and German sprechen.
The close relationship between speak and speech is clearer in the original Old English, where they are sprecan and sprēc, the ‘r’ dropping out of the words early on. ‘I speak as I find’, first appears in Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew: ‘Mistake me not; I speak but as I find.’ Never speak ill of the dead has an even longer history. ‘Speak no evil of the dead’ is attributed to the Spartan magistrate Chilon as far back as the 6th century bc, and a later Latin proverb, de mortuis nil nisi bonum, can be translated as ‘say nothing of the dead but what is good’. The English version of the proverb is first recorded in the 16th century, originally in the form ‘rail not upon him that is dead’. Speakeasy (late 19th century) an American term for an unlicensed drinking establishment, gets its name for ‘speak’ and ‘easy’ in the sense ‘gently, softly’ from the need to be discreet when talking about it. See also ache