| Library / English Dictionary |
SPEAK OUT
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (verb)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Express one's opinion openly and without fear or hesitation
Example:
John spoke up at the meeting
Synonyms:
animadvert; opine; sound off; speak out; speak up
Classified under:
Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing
Hypernyms (to "speak out" is one way to...):
declare (state emphatically and authoritatively)
Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "speak out"):
editorialise; editorialize (insert personal opinions into an objective statement)
Sentence frame:
Somebody ----s that CLAUSE
Context examples:
Work of officers thorough, but quick. Want us off soon. At dark passed into Archipelago. On 13 July passed Cape Matapan. Crew dissatisfied about something. Seemed scared, but would not speak out.
(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)
Beth lay a minute thinking, and then said in her quiet way, I don't know how to express myself, and shouldn't try to anyone but you, because I can't speak out except to my Jo. I only mean to say that I have a feeling that it never was intended I should live long.
(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)
Be as like your sister as you can, and speak out!
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
You must speak out.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
May I speak out, among friends? To be her father is a proud distinction, but to be her usband—
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
