Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- intransitive verb To speak or write at length.
- intransitive verb To wander freely.
from The Century Dictionary.
- To move at large; rove without prescribed limits; wander without restraint.
- To enlarge in discourse or writing; be copious in argument or discussion: with on or upon.
- To allow to range at large; give free exercise to; expand; broaden.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- transitive verb To expand; to spread; to extend; to diffuse; to broaden.
- intransitive verb To range at large, or without restraint.
- intransitive verb To enlarge in discourse or writing; to be copious in argument or discussion; to descant.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- verb To range at large, or without restraint.
- verb To write or speak at length; to be copious in argument or discussion, to
descant . - verb obsolete To expand; to spread; to extend; to diffuse; to broaden.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- verb add details, as to an account or idea; clarify the meaning of and discourse in a learned way, usually in writing
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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Godwin offers a glowing description of this future state, where all people share equally in the "bounties of nature" and are free to "expatiate" in the realms of intellectual discovery:
Introduction 2001
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And why would we need a critic to expatiate on his/her emotional reactions in this way?
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Really there is no need to expatiate upon the change, except to point out that social media by its very nature engages this cultural shift.
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Listening to him expatiate on his role, he sometimes sounds like a man trying to shadow all the big offices of state.
Nick Clegg interview: 'We're not going to do it the way we did in the 80s' chief political commentator 2010
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You want to hear me expatiate on the plethora of Clintonians filling the Obama Administration?
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Really there is no need to expatiate upon the change, except to point out that social media by its very nature engages this cultural shift.
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To expatiate on the “binary collapse” and “epistemological flippage” brought about by “the erosion of the once-secure border distinction between the private and public spheres.”
FLY FISHING WITH DARTH VADER MATT LABASH 2010
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I guess they think it would just be "cool" if a woman were in the oval office and it would expatiate some of their sexist guilt at the same time.
Clinton 'Advisor': Obama Is For People Who Want "Imaginary Hip Black Friend" 2009
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Having given you this general idea and description of the law of nations; need I expatiate on its dignity and importance?
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If Edgar thought his daughter of a disposition with which his own could not sympathise, it were vain to expatiate upon her virtues or her sweetness; that one doubt previously taken might mar their assimilating efficacy.
Camilla 2008
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