Definitions
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun The act of protesting; a protesting in earnest and solemn words, as by calling God to witness; protestation.
- noun An earnest or pressing request; a supplication; an entreaty.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun rare The act of obtesting; supplication; protestation.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun The act of
obtesting ;supplication ;protestation .
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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If we should say that this was not simply an oath, but a kind of obtestation, the holy man will be, in some degree, excusable.
Commentary on Genesis - Volume 2 1509-1564 1996
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While thus speaking, she held Roland Graeme firmly with one hand, while she pointed upward with the other, to leave him, as it were, no means of protest against the obtestation to which he was thus made a party.
The Abbot 2008
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Nor did she farther press him on the subject; for, having concluded her prayer or obtestation, by clasping her hands together with solemnity, and then signing herself with the cross, she again addressed her grandson, in a tone more adapted to the ordinary business of life.
The Abbot 2008
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“As you are a false varlet, had been the better obtestation.”
The Abbot 2008
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The veracious historian makes obtestation of the strict truth of his narrative, and imprecates all sorts of evil upon such as do not believe it absolutely.
Classic French Course in English William Cleaver Wilkinson
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_Petrarche_ in a sonet which Sir _Thomas Wiat_ Englished excellently well, said in this figure by way of imprecation and obtestation: thus,
The Arte of English Poesie George Puttenham
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The figure of exclamation, I call him [_the outcrie_] because it vtters our minde by all such words as do shew any extreme passion, whether it be by way of exclamation or crying out, admiration or wondering, imprecation or cursing, obtestation or taking God and the world to witnes, or any such like as declare an impotent affection, as _Chaucer_ of the _Lady
The Arte of English Poesie George Puttenham
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He expressed a natural amazement that the lines should have been so grossly misunderstood, and defended them as being ‘one of the strongest forms of obtestation, of adjuring God to show mercy, by all His grace, and truth, and love.’
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His obsequious "Here, sir," his horrid fluency of obtestation, made the murder tenfold more revolting.
The Wrecker 1898
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The Englishman was struck with the solemnity of the obtestation, and answered with more cordiality than he had yet exhibited,
The Talisman 1894
jaime_d commented on the word obtestation
From Thomas Carlyle's The French Revolution
March 6, 2011