speech

noun

1. (uncountable)The ability to speak; the faculty of uttering words or articulate sounds and vocalizations to communicate.

   “He had a bad speech impediment.”

   “After the accident she lost her speech.”

   “All this was extraordinarily distasteful to Churchill. It was ugly, gross. Never before had he felt such repulsion when the vicar displayed his characteristic bluntness or coarseness of speech. In the present connexion[…] such talk had been distressingly out of place.”

   “I was at liberty to attend to Wilbert, who I could see desired speech with me. […] As far as Bobbie and I were concerned, silence reigned, this novel twist in the scenario having wiped speech from our lips, as the expression is, but Phyllis continued vocal. […] For perhaps a quarter of a minute after he had passed from the scene the aged relative stood struggling for utterance. At the end of this period she found speech. “Of all the damn silly fatheaded things!””

2. (uncountable)The act of speaking, a certain style of it.

   “It was hard to hear his speech over the noise.”

   “Her speech was soft and lilting.”

   “Manganism has been known about since the 19th century, when miners exposed to ores containing manganese, a silvery metal, began to totter, slur their speech and behave like someone inebriated.”

3. (countable)A formal session of speaking, especially a long oral message given publicly by one person.

   “The candidate made some ambitious promises in his campaign speech.”

   “The constant design of both these orators, in all their speeches, was to drive some one particular point.”

4. (countable)A dialect, vernacular, or (dated) a language.

   “For thou art not sent to a people of a strange speech, and of an hard language, but to the house of Israel.”

   “The speche of Englande is a base speche to other noble speches, as Italion, Castylion, and Frenche; howbeit the speche of Englande of late dayes is amended.”

5. (uncountable)Language used orally, rather than in writing.

   “This word is mostly used in speech.”

6. (countable, uncountable)An utterance that is quoted; see direct speech, reported speech
7. (uncountable)Public talk, news, gossip, rumour.

   “The duke[…]did of me demand / What was the speech among the Londoners / Concerning the French journey.”

verb

1. (intransitive, transitive)To make (a speech); to harangue.

   “I'll speech against peace while Dismal's my name, / And be a true whig, while I'm Not-in-game.”

   “So to Speeching he did go, / And like a Man of Senſe, / He certainly ſaid Ay or No,”

   “Two lawyers who had come over from Williamsburg to make speeches in honor of Battery Dan were told by Lawyer William J. Caffrey that only Manhattanites would be allowed to speak. “If you let my friend speech something,” said one of the Williamsburgers, “I will be satisfactioned mitout^([sic]) speeching.[…]””

   “"He wasn't one to make himself big," said Mr. Jones. "But he had something that drew the people when he was speeching... When he came down we all used to shout 'Lloyd George am byth!' You know, 'Lloyd George forever!' That was just how we felt."”