speechify

present singular third person speechifies · participle present speechifying · participle past speechified · past speechified

1. intransitiveTo give a speech; to hold forth; (now especially) to pronounce pompously or at length.

   He never missed a chance of speechifying in public.

   1985, Lawrence Durrell, Quinx (Avignon Quintet), Faber & Faber, published 2004, page 1351

   3 more examples

   Caleb was a powerful man and knew little of any fear except the fear of hurting others and the fear of having to speechify.

   1871–1872, George Eliot [pseudonym; Mary Ann Evans], chapter LVI, in Middlemarch […], volume III, Edinburgh; London: William Blackwood and Sons, →OCLC, book VI, page 238

   The home minister, Admiral Suetsugu, speechified grandly of a Japanese eminent domain beyond the seas, of a “moral purification drive” in the home islands.

   2007, James Brady, Warning of War: A Novel of the North China Marines, Macmillan, →ISBN

   Rodey McQueen speechified elegantly about the necessity for harmony.

   2013, John Nichols, The Magic Journey: A Novel, Holt Paperbacks, →ISBN, page 20

2. obsoletepossiblytransitiveTo make speeches to (someone); to address in a speech.

   They take their little enjoyments on little means and with little things and don't let solemn big-wigs stare them out of countenance or speechify them dull.

   1864, Charles Dickens, chapter 2, in Mrs. Lirriper's Legacy