exclaim

present singular third person exclaims · participle present exclaiming · participle past exclaimed · past exclaimed · alternative exclame

1. intransitiveTo cry out suddenly, from some strong emotion.

   I am a soldier, and unapt to weep, Or to exclaim on fortune’s fickleness.

   1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The First Part of Henry the Sixt”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene iii]

   4 more examples

   Very grave and good Women exclaimed against Men who begot Children and then disowned them.

   1749, Henry Fielding, chapter 9, in The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, volume (please specify |volume=I to VI), London: A[ndrew] Millar, […], →OCLC, book I, page 33

   This wretched note was the finale of Emma’s breakfast. When once it had been read, there was no doing any thing, but lament and exclaim.

   1815 December (indicated as 1816), [Jane Austen], Emma: […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), London: […] [Charles Roworth and James Moyes] for John Murray, →OCLC

   […] he could remember Sally tearing off a rose, stopping to exclaim at the beauty of the cabbage leaves in the moonlight […]

   1925, Virginia Woolf, Mrs Dalloway, New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, published 1985, page 114

   […] at the front door below a few guests were leaving, and the bright rectangle widened and narrowed as they slipped out into the night, laughing and exclaiming about the weather.

   2011, Alan Hollinghurst, The Stranger’s Child, New York: Knopf, Part 4, Chapter 1, p. 285

2. transitiveTo say suddenly and with strong emotion.

   […] her aunt, after having stared at me a good while with a look of amazement, exclaimed, “In the name of heaven! Who art thou?”—

   1748, [Tobias Smollett], chapter 40, in The Adventures of Roderick Random. […], volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: […] [William Strahan] for J[ohn] Osborn […], →OCLC, page 28

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   Must she be forc’d, t’exclaime th’iniurious wrong? Offred by him, whom she hath lou’d so long? Nay, I will tell, and I durst almost sweare, Edward will blush, when he his fault shall heare.

   1603, Michael Drayton, “Alice Countesse of Salisburie, to the blacke Prince”, in The Barrons Wars in the Raigne of Edward the Second, London: N. Ling, page 31

   Without returning any direct reply, Miss Squeers, all at once, fell into a paroxysm of spiteful tears, and exclaimed that she was a wretched, neglected, miserable castaway.

   1838 March – 1839 October, Charles Dickens, chapter 12, in The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published 1839, →OCLC

   “Heavens!” exclaimed Nina, “the blue-stocking and the fogy!—and yours are pale blue, Eileen!—you’re about as self-conscious as Drina—slumping there with your hair tumbling à la Mérode! Oh, it's very picturesque, of course, but a straight spine and good grooming is better.[…]”

   1907 August, Robert W[illiam] Chambers, chapter IX, in The Younger Set, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, →OCLC

   You never pump your arm when you score, you never exclaim anything, you don’t even smile when you fire a perfect backhand straight down the line.

   2017, André Aciman, “Manfred”, in Enigma Variations, New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, page 135

plural exclaims · alternative exclame

1. obsoleteExclamation; outcry, clamor.

   Oh fortune, thou’rt not worth my least exclame [...].

   1635, John Donne, His parting form her

   1 more example

   Foul devil, for God’s sake, hence, and trouble us not; For thou hast made the happy earth thy hell, Fill’d it with cursing cries and deep exclaims.

   1595 December 9 (first known performance), William Shakespeare, “The Life and Death of King Richard the Second”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene 2]