English

Alternative forms

• philippick (obsolete)

Noun

philippic ‎(plural philippics)

1. Any of the discourses of Demosthenes against Philip II of Macedon, defending the liberty of Athens.
2. (by extension) Any tirade or declamation full of bitter condemnation.
   • 1811, Jane Austen, “Volume II, Chapter XII (a.k.a. Chapter 34)”, in Sense and Sensibility, page 234:

     Mrs. Ferrars looked exceedingly angry, and drawing herself up more stiffly than ever, pronounced in retort this bitter phillipic; “Miss Morton is Lord Morton’s daughter.”

   • 1922, James Joyce, Ulysses:

     Skin-the-Goat, assuming he was he, evidently with an axe to grind, was airing his grievances in a forcible-feeble philippic anent the natural resources of Ireland, or something of that sort, which he described in his lengthy dissertation as the richest country bar none on the face of God’s earth, far and away superior to England

Synonyms

• See also Wikisaurus:diatribe

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