DISCOURSE • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Discourse

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/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.

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Etymology of 'Discourse'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Discourse" Quotes from Famous Books

... During this little discourse, Major Elliott had time to recover from the shock; and being a man of resolute calmness and great self-possession—which qualities, by the way, formed a considerable element in his attractions—the remainder of the evening was passed ...

— Chambers's Edinburgh Journal, No. 452 - Volume 18, New Series, August 28, 1852 • Various

... taken with him, and used his utmost eloquence and endeavors to convert the devil; the knights stopped drinking to listen to the argument; the men-at-arms forbore brawling; and the wicked little pages crowded round the two strange disputants, to hear their edifying discourse. The ghostly man, however, had little chance in the controversy, and certainly little learning to carry it on. Sir Randal interrupted him. "Father Peter," said he, "our kinsman is condemned for ever, for want of a single ave: wilt thou say it for him?" "Willingly, my ...

— The Paris Sketch Book Of Mr. M. A. Titmarsh • William Makepeace Thackeray

... nearer intercourse, he disclosed, as well as by that entire absence of any literary assumption or pedantry, which entitled him fully to the praise bestowed by Sprat upon Cowley—that few could ever discover he was a great poet by his discourse." ...

— My Recollections of Lord Byron • Teresa Guiccioli

... find that in Arden the talk touched only great themes, in a spirit of beautiful candour and unaffected earnestness! To have exchanged the small personal talk from which we had often been unable to escape for this simple, sincere discourse on the things that were of common interest was like exchanging the cloud-enveloped lowland for some sunny mountain slope, where every breath was vital and one mused on half a continent spread out at his feet. There is no food for the soul but ...

— Under the Trees and Elsewhere • Hamilton Wright Mabie

... the other French islands. "They came into the chapel as to an assembly, or to some profane spectacle; they talked, laughed, and joked. The people in the gallery talked louder than I did, and mingled the name of God in their discourse in an insufferable manner. I mildly remonstrated with them three or four times; but seeing that it had no effect, I spoke in a way that compelled some officers to impose silence. A well-behaved person had the goodness to inform me, after mass, that it was necessary to ...

— Atlantic Monthly, Volume 10, Number 59, September, 1862 • Various

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