speke

Verb

speak (third-person singular simple present speaks, present participle speaking, simple past spoke or (archaic) spake, past participle spoken or (colloquial, nonstandard) spoke)

1. (intransitive) To communicate with one's voice, to say words out loud.
   • 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. He said that if you wanted to do anything for them, you must rule them, not pamper them.1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter XXV, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC, page 203
2. (intransitive, reciprocal) To have a conversation.
   • It's been ages since we've spoken.
3. (broadly) To communicate or converse by some means other than orally, such as writing or facial expressions.
   • He spoke of it in his diary.
4. (intransitive) To deliver a message to a group; to deliver a speech.
   • This evening I shall speak on the topic of correct English usage.
5. (stative, transitive) To be able to communicate in a language.
   • He speaks Mandarin fluently.
   1. (broadly, stative, transitive) To be able to communicate in the manner of specialists in a field.
      • Even those who did 'speak computer' did so sometimes in a less than fluent way which required a jump to be made from a press-the-right-button stage to having the confidence to experiment.1998, Nigel G Fielding, Raymond M Lee, Computer Analysis and Qualitative Research, page 4

See all 15 meanings of speak