DISCOURSE • FREE-TRANSLATOR.COM • Definition of Discourse

Add this Dictionary
to your website!
See more options...

/dˈɪskɔrs/ Listen

noun

Discourse n.

1.

The power of the mind to reason or infer by running, as it were, from one fact or reason to another, and deriving a conclusion; an exercise or act of this power; reasoning; range of reasoning faculty. (Obs.) "Difficult, strange, and harsh to the discourses of natural reason." "Sure he that made us with such large discourse, Looking before and after, gave us not That capability and godlike reason To fust in us unused."

2.

Conversation; talk. "In their discourses after supper." "Filling the head with variety of thoughts, and the mouth with copious discourse."

3.

The art and manner of speaking and conversing. "Of excellent breeding, admirable discourse."

4.

Consecutive speech, either written or unwritten, on a given line of thought; speech; treatise; dissertation; sermon, etc.; as, the preacher gave us a long discourse on duty.

5.

Dealing; transaction. (Obs.) "Good Captain Bessus, tell us the discourse Betwixt Tigranes and our king, and how We got the victory."

verb

Discourse v. t.

1.

To treat of; to expose or set forth in language. (Obs.) "The life of William Tyndale... is sufficiently and at large discoursed in the book."

2.

To utter or give forth; to speak. "It will discourse most eloquent music."

3.

To talk to; to confer with. (Obs.) "I have spoken to my brother, who is the patron, to discourse the minister about it."

Discourse v. i. (past & past part. discoursed; pres. part. discoursing)

1.

To exercise reason; to employ the mind in judging and inferring; to reason. (Obs.) "Have sense or can discourse."

2.

To express one's self in oral discourse; to expose one's views; to talk in a continuous or formal manner; to hold forth; to speak; to converse. "Bid me discourse, I will enchant thine ear."

3.

To relate something; to tell.

4.

To treat of something in writing and formally.

See images of 'Discourse'

Etymology of 'Discourse'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

Share |

"Discourse" Quotes from Famous Books

... word height in the title-page, and another which had the word salt conspicuous he threw among books on Chemistry or Cookery. But when he began a regular classification, it appeared that the former was 'Longinus on the Sublime,' and the other a 'Theological Discourse on the Salt of the World, that good Christians ought to be seasoned with.' Thus, in a catalogue published about eighty years ago the 'Flowers of Ancient Literature' are found among books on Gardening and Botany, ...

— The Book-Hunter in London - Historical and Other Studies of Collectors and Collecting • William Roberts

... to be played with. Read no paper or book in company. Come not near the papers or books of another when he is writing. Let your countenance be cheerful; but in serious matters be grave. Let your discourse with others, on matters of business, be short. It is good manners to let others speak first. When a man does all he can, do not blame him, though he succeeds not well. Take admonitions thankfully. Be not too ...

— How To Behave: A Pocket Manual Of Republican Etiquette, And Guide To Correct Personal Habits • Samuel R Wells

... immortal. In his earlier ministry he had been dwelling upon the presence of the divine kingdom in the earth, the practical conditions for membership therein, and the inclusion of Gentile as well as Jew in the gracious provision. Novel were his words. Whoever had heard his discourse on the Mount or the parable of the lost sheep was rich beyond the modern sons of men. But now, in the closing period of his stay with mortals, he was more frequently foretelling the life to come. Like a footworn traveler drawing near the homeland, ...

— An Easter Disciple • Arthur Benton Sanford

... spoke freely with them of whatever came uppermost, or lay deepest in his heart or their own. While they talked together, his face would kindle, unawares, and shine upon them, as with a mild evening light. Pensive with the fulness of such discourse, his guests took leave and went their way; and passing up the valley, paused to look at the Great Stone Face, imagining that they had seen its likeness in a human countenance, but ...

— The Snow Image • Nathaniel Hawthorne

... At this discourse the fair slave, who, according to her usual custom, had hearkened to the king with downcast eyes, and had given him cause to believe not only that she was dumb, but that she had never laughed in her life, began to smile a little. The King of Persia perceived it ...

— Fairy Tales From The Arabian Nights • E. Dixon

Copyright © 2025 Free-Translator.com