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Webster 1913 Edition


Utterance

Ut′ter-ance

,
Noun.
1.
The act of uttering.
Specifically: –
(a)
Sale by offering to the public.
[Obs.]
Bacon.
(b)
Putting in circulation;
as, the
utterance
of false coin, or of forged notes
.
(c)
Vocal expression; articulation; speech.
At length gave
utterance
to these words.
Milton.
2.
Power or style of speaking;
as, a good
utterance
.
They . . . began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them
utterance
.
Acts ii. 4.
O, how unlike
To that large
utterance
of the early gods!
Keats.

Ut′ter-ance

,
Noun.
[F.
outrance
. See
Outrance
.]
The last extremity; the end; death; outrance.
[Obs.]
Annibal forced those captives whom he had taken of our men to skirmish one against another to the
utterance
.
Holland.

Webster 1828 Edition


Utterance

UT'TERANCE

,
Noun.
1.
The act of uttering words; pronunciation; manner of speaking; as a good or bad utterance.
They began to speak with other tongues, as the spirit gave them utterance. Acts 2.
2.
Emission from the mouth; vocal expression; as the utterance of sounds.
3.
Extremity; furthest part. [Not in use.]

Definition 2024


utterance

utterance

English

Alternative forms

Noun

utterance (plural utterances)

  1. An act of uttering.
  2. Something spoken.
    • 1918, W. B. Maxwell, chapter 13, in The Mirror and the Lamp:
      […] They talk of you as if you were Croesus—and I expect the beggars sponge on you unconscionably. And Vickers launched forth into a tirade very different from his platform utterances. He spoke with extreme contempt of the dense stupidity exhibited on all occasions by the working classes.
    • 2005, Plato, Sophist. Translation by Lesley Brown. 237a.
      To know how one should express oneself in saying or judging that there really are falsehoods without getting caught up in contradiction by such an utterance: that's extremely difficult, Theaetetus.
  3. The ability to speak.
  4. Manner of speaking.
    • Bible, Acts ii. 4
      They [] began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.
    • John Keats
      O, how unlike / To that large utterance of the early gods!
    He has a good utterance.
  5. (obsolete) Sale by offering to the public.
    (Can we find and add a quotation of Francis Bacon to this entry?)
  6. (obsolete) Putting in circulation.
    the utterance of false coin, or of forged notes
Quotations
  • Mathematics and Poetry are... the utterance of the same power of imagination, only that in the one case it is addressed to the head, in the other, to the heart. Thomas Hill
Related terms
Translations

Etymology 2

From Old French oultrance.

Noun

utterance (plural utterances)

  1. (now literary) The utmost extremity (of a fight etc.).
    • 1485, Sir Thomas Malory, chapter liij, in Le Morte Darthur, book X:
      And soo they mette soo hard / that syre Palomydes felle to the erthe hors and alle / Thenne sir Bleoberis cryed a lowde and said thus / make the redy thou fals traytour knyghte Breuse saunce pyte / for wete thow certaynly I wille haue adoo with the to the vtteraunce for the noble knyghtes and ladyes that thou hast falsly bitraid

References

  1. utterance in The Century Dictionary, The Century Co., New York, 1911