speechifying

English

Verb

speechifying

1. present participle and gerund of speechify

Noun

speechifying (plural speechifyings)

1. The art of making speeches; rhetoric or oratory.
2. The act of speaking, especially at excessive length.
   • 1831, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter VIII, in Romance and Reality. […], volume III, London: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley, […], →OCLC, page 174:

     "I thank you," said Lorraine, "for reinforcing my favourite theory, which maintains that a love of talking is the great feature of the present time. Steam is not half so much its characteristic as speechifying."

   • 2007 December 9, Scott Timberg, quoting Annalee Newitz, “The descent of a sci-fi guru”, in Los Angeles Times‎^[1], Los Angeles, Calif.: Los Angeles Times Communications, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 8 August 2020:

     “To literary readers, the books look cheesy, sexist in a hairy-chest, gold-chain kind of way. His [Robert Heinlein's] stuff hasn’t stood the test of time,” because of characters’ windy speechifying and their frontier optimism.

   • 2017 February 1, Michelle Cottle, “Why the Filibuster Is a Senator's Best Friend”, in Jeffrey Goldberg, editor, The Atlantic‎^[2], Washington, D.C.: The Atlantic Monthly Group, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 6 February 2017, retrieved 9 February 2025:

     When filibusters started being used in 1837, the lack of such a motion allowed for endless speechifying.