lisping

Verb

lisp (third-person singular simple present lisps, present participle lisping, simple past and past participle lisped)

1. (intransitive) To pronounce the consonant ‘s’ imperfectly; to give ‘s’ and ‘z’ the sounds of ‘th’ (/θ/, /ð/). This is a speech impediment common among children.
   • Until the age of 10, Dominic would lisp, but this was fixed by a speech therapist.
2. (intransitive) To speak with imperfect articulation; to mispronounce, such as a child learning to talk.
   • As yet a Child, nor yet a Fool to Fame, / I liſp'd in Numbers, for the Numbers came.1735 January 13 (Gregorian calendar; indicated as 1734), [Alexander] Pope, An Epistle from Mr. Pope, to Dr. Arbuthnot, London: […] J[ohn] Wright for Lawton Gilliver […], →OCLC, page 7, lines 122–123
3. (archaic, intransitive) To speak hesitatingly and with a low voice, as if afraid.
   • Lest when my lisping, guilty tongue should halt.1597, Michaell [i.e., Michael] Drayton, “(please specify the chapter, poem, or subtitle)”, in Englands Heroicall Epistles, London: […] I[ames] R[oberts] for N[icholas] Ling, […], →OCLC
4. (archaic, intransitive) to express by the use of simple, childlike language.
   • But the fashion spreads deeper and wider; the village is infected and the village green; Amelias and Claras sweep your rooms and cook your dinners, gentle Sophias milk your cows, and if you ask a pretty smiling girl at a cottage door to tell you her name, the rosy lips lisp out Caroline.1830, Mary Russell Mitford, “Cottage Names”, in Our Village: Sketches of Rural Character and Scenery, volume IV, London: Whittaker, Treacher, & Co., […], →OCLC, page 68
5. (archaic, intransitive) To speak with reserve or concealment; to utter timidly or confidentially.
   • to lisp treason

See all 7 meanings of lisp