Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun One who delivers an oration.
- noun An eloquent and skilled public speaker.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun A public speaker; one who delivers an oration; a person who pronounces a discourse publicly on some special occasion; a pleader or lawyer.
- noun An eloquent public speaker; one who is skilled as a speaker; an eloquent man: as, he writes and reasons well, but is no orator.
- noun A spokesman; an advocate; a defender; one who defends by pleading; one who argues in favor of a person or a cause.
- noun In law, the plaintiff or petitioner in a bill or information in chancery.
- noun An orationer; a petitioner; one who offers a prayer or petition.
- noun An officer of English universities: see the quotation.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun A public speaker; one who delivers an oration; especially, one distinguished for his skill and power as a public speaker; one who is eloquent.
- noun In equity proceedings, one who prays for relief; a petitioner.
- noun A plaintiff, or complainant, in a bill in chancery.
- noun (Eng. Universities) An officer who is the voice of the university upon all public occasions, who writes, reads, and records all letters of a public nature, presents, with an appropriate address, those persons on whom honorary degrees are to be conferred, and performs other like duties; -- called also
public orator .
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun Someone who
orates ordelivers anoration . - noun A
skilled andeloquent public speaker .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun a person who delivers a speech or oration
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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Demades, the Ancient Greek orator, is about to address an assembly in Athens on a matter of vital importance.
Campfire Writing: Why Stories are the Writer’s Elemental Tool | Write to Done 2009
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It was a performance to daunt a lesser orator from the very attempt.
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Colonel Winston, a great orator from the West, was at a convention in Washington as a candidate for Attorney-General.
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A stump orator is imported, a real rabble-rouser of the peppiest kind, and with blatant eloquence he demonstrates that nothing will be easier than for Gopher Prairie to take the lead and reach the 200,000 class.
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But whoever read it to you should have explained that when I wrote 'He was an orator,' the word orator was marked emphatically, so as to appear printed in capital letters of emphasis.
The Letters of Elizabeth Barrett Browning Kenyon, Frederic G 1898
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The prosecutors brought with them a certain orator named Tertullus, a Roman, skilled in the Roman law and language, and therefore fittest to be employed in a cause before the Roman governor, and most likely to gain favour.
Commentary on the Whole Bible Volume VI (Acts to Revelation) 1721
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The tongue of the most subtle disputant, and the most eloquent orator, is but the pen with which God writes what he pleases.
Commentary on the Whole Bible Volume III (Job to Song of Solomon) 1721
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a certain orator -- one of those Roman advocates who trained themselves for the higher practice of the metropolis by practicing in the provinces, where the Latin language, employed in the courts, was but imperfectly understood and Roman forms were not familiar. informed ... against Paul -- "laid information," that is, put in the charges.
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1 And after five days Ananias the high priest descended with the elders, and with a certain orator named Tertullus, who informed the governor against Paul.
Commentary on the Whole Bible Volume VI (Acts to Revelation) 1721
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Senator John McCain, who has not known as a mellifluous orator, is already playing the political game of lowering expectations for his acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention in Minneapolis next month – particularly since Senator Barack Obama will deliver his speech before the Democrats at the Denver Broncos’ football stadium.
McCain on His Convention Speech - The Caucus Blog - NYTimes.com 2008
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