withspeak

W4I1T1H4S1P3E1A1K5

verb

To speak against; contradict.

Scrabble 21

Meanings

verbwithspeak (third-person singular simple present withspeaks, present participle withspeaking, simple past withspoke, past participle withspoken)

present singular third person withspeaks · participle present withspeaking · past withspoke · participle past withspoken

  1. raretransitiveTo speak against; contradict.

    You withspeak yourself within two sentences.

    1995 February 24, Step by Step, “>are the memories real??”, in alt.sexual.abuse.recovery (Usenet)
    5 more examples

    How may I withspeak the hostile word or find an answer to my foes?

    1910, Cynewulf, Charles W. Kennedy, Ph.D, The poems of Cynewulf, page 158

    She pushed six again. “Ulric, I love you," she recited. “Ulric, I love you." Six blinked. The door opened. “Ulric," she said. He was standing in front of the elevator, glaring at her. “Aren't you going to say something?" he said. "Like 'I withspeak myself?' That's a nice example of Germanic compounding. But of course you know that. Language generation is your area of special study, isn't that right, Sally?”

    1984, Connie Willis, Blued Moon

    In the same thread (and others as well) it was stated and AFAIR never withspoken, that light 'climbing out a gravity well' redshifts, thus looses^([sic]) energy, but not speed (and vice versa falling in).

    1996 July 24, LBsys, “John Baez' gravitational rainbow”, in sci.physics (Usenet)

    Palsgrave says of re, "and as for re is never used alone but in composition as I have afore sayd in the LII chapter of the first boke". Although this remark withspeaks the essence of prepositional morphology outlined in his definition, he curiously counts it as among the "XXIIII prepositions [that] never be founde belongynge to any of the other partes of speche" […]

    1999, Brett David Wells, The Learned Vernacular

    The multiplicity of the second members in these connections withspeaks any thought of pairing of two deities in any one of such names and the identification of the first member with ᵈa-ku.

    2002, Marek Stachowski, Studia Etymologica Cracoviensia, volumes 7-9, page 40

Synonyms & antonyms

Origin

  1. Proto-West Germanic*wiþisprekan
  2. Old Englishwiþsprecan“to contradict, gainsay, revile”
  3. Middle Englishwithspeken“to speak against, contradict”
  4. Englishwithspeak

A revival of Middle English withspeken (“to speak against, contradict”), from Old English wiþsprecan (“to contradict, gainsay, revile”), from Proto-West Germanic *wiþisprekan, equivalent to with- + speak. Cognate with Old Frisian withspreka (“to disagree”), Saterland Frisian wierspreeke (“to contradict”), West Frisian wjersprekke (“to contradict”), Dutch weerspreken (“to contradict”), German widersprechen (“to contradict, gainsay”).

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

withspeak. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/withspeak

MLA

“withspeak.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/withspeak. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “withspeak,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/withspeak.

Source: withspeak on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.