Library / English Dictionary

NARRATE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Narrate or give a detailed account of

Example:

The father told a story to his child

Synonyms:

narrate; recite; recount; tell

Classified under:

Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing

Hypernyms (to "narrate" is one way to...):

inform (impart knowledge of some fact, state of affairs, or event to)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "narrate"):

relate (give an account of)

crack (tell spontaneously)

yarn (tell or spin a yarn)

rhapsodise; rhapsodize (recite a rhapsody)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Something ----s something
Somebody ----s something to somebody

Sentence example:

They won't narrate the story

Derivation:

narration ((rhetoric) the second section of an oration in which the facts are set forth)

narration (the act of giving an account describing incidents or a course of events)

narration (a message that tells the particulars of an act or occurrence or course of events; presented in writing or drama or cinema or as a radio or television program)

narrative (consisting of or characterized by the telling of a story)

narrator (someone who tells a story)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Provide commentary for a film, for example

Classified under:

Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing

Hypernyms (to "narrate" is one way to...):

inform (impart knowledge of some fact, state of affairs, or event to)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s
Somebody ----s something

Derivation:

narration (the act of giving an account describing incidents or a course of events)

narration (a message that tells the particulars of an act or occurrence or course of events; presented in writing or drama or cinema or as a radio or television program)

Credits

 Context examples: 

Never (she used to say, with streaming tears, when she narrated that experience), never had she felt more at peace with all men or thought more kindly of the world.

(The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

My letter to Agnes was a fervent and grateful one, narrating all the good effects that had resulted from my following her advice.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

I am ignorant of all concerning Mr. Rochester: the letter never mentions him but to narrate the fraudulent and illegal attempt I have adverted to.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

We had a pleasant little meal together, during which Holmes would talk about nothing but violins, narrating with great exultation how he had purchased his own Stradivarius, which was worth at least five hundred guineas, at a Jew broker’s in Tottenham Court Road for fifty-five shillings.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

What ravages I committed on my favourite authors in the course of my interpretation of them, I am not in a condition to say, and should be very unwilling to know; but I had a profound faith in them, and I had, to the best of my belief, a simple, earnest manner of narrating what I did narrate; and these qualities went a long way.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

I need not narrate in detail the further struggles I had, and arguments I used, to get matters regarding the legacy settled as I wished.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

Then my sole relief was to walk along the corridor of the third storey, backwards and forwards, safe in the silence and solitude of the spot, and allow my mind's eye to dwell on whatever bright visions rose before it—and, certainly, they were many and glowing; to let my heart be heaved by the exultant movement, which, while it swelled it in trouble, expanded it with life; and, best of all, to open my inward ear to a tale that was never ended—a tale my imagination created, and narrated continuously; quickened with all of incident, life, fire, feeling, that I desired and had not in my actual existence.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

Each picture told a story; mysterious often to my undeveloped understanding and imperfect feelings, yet ever profoundly interesting: as interesting as the tales Bessie sometimes narrated on winter evenings, when she chanced to be in good humour; and when, having brought her ironing-table to the nursery hearth, she allowed us to sit about it, and while she got up Mrs. Reed's lace frills, and crimped her nightcap borders, fed our eager attention with passages of love and adventure taken from old fairy tales and other ballads; or (as at a later period I discovered) from the pages of Pamela, and Henry, Earl of Moreland.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)