declaim

Verb

declaim (third-person singular simple present declaims, present participle declaiming, simple past and past participle declaimed)

1. (intransitive) To recite, e.g., poetry, in a theatrical way; to speak for rhetorical display; to speak pompously, noisily, or theatrically; bemouth; to make an empty speech; to rehearse trite arguments in debate; to rant.
   • Grenville seized the opportunity to declaim on the repeal of the stamp act.1834–1874, George Bancroft, History of the United States, from the Discovery of the American Continent, volume (please specify |volume=I to X), Boston, Mass.: Little, Brown and Company [et al.], →OCLC
2. (intransitive) To speak rhetorically; to make a formal speech or oration; specifically, to recite a speech, poem, etc., in public as a rhetorical exercise; to practice public speaking.
   • The students declaim twice a week.
3. (transitive) To object to something vociferously; to rail against in speech.
   • Their love had gone too far on occasion: praying to those pictures and then sliding to worship those drawings as pagans had once worshiped idols. Many priests declaimed the practice and warned that the people were violating God's first commandment against false idols.1994, Lawrence Murray, Lonely is the Pioneer
   • Declaiming such practices, Baskaran writes: 'The flow of the film would not be affected in the least if song sequences were excised, wholly or partly'1996, Lalitha Gopalan, “Indian Cinema”, in Jill Nelmes, editor, An Introduction to Film Studies
4. (proscribed, transitive) To disclaim, disavow.
   • He now declaimed having intended any thing disrespectful to the Senate in the expression he had used.1835 February 20, “Mr. Adams and the French”, in North River Times
   • Unless these conditions are fulfilled we declaim responsibility.1928 September, “The Cooperation of the Pharmacist and the Wholesale Druggist (advertisement)”, in Druggist's Circular, page 77