Webster
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Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Discourse

Dis·course′ (dĭs·kōrs′), n. [L. discursus a running to and fro, discourse, fr. discurrere, discursum, to run to and fro, to discourse; dis- + currere to run: cf. F. discours. See Course.] 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. South.

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. Shak.

2. Conversation; talk.

In their discourses after supper. Shak.

Filling the head with variety of thoughts, and the mouth with copious discourse. Locke.

3. The art and manner of speaking and conversing.

Of excellent breeding, admirable discourse. Shak.

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. Beau. & Fl.

Dis·course′ (dĭs·kōrs′), v. i. [imp. & p. p. Discoursed; p. pr. & vb. n. Discoursing.] 1. To exercise reason; to employ the mind in judging and inferring; to reason. [Obs.] "Have sense or can discourse." Dryden.

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. Shak.

3. To relate something; to tell. Shak.

4. To treat of something in writing and formally.

Dis·course′, 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. Foxe.

2. To utter or give forth; to speak.

It will discourse most eloquent music. Shak.

3. To talk to; to confer with. [Obs.]

I have spoken to my brother, who is the patron, to discourse the minister about it. Evelyn.

Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Noah Porter, editor (Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913). Public domain. Text as transcribed by MICRA, Inc., from Project Gutenberg. Changed for Deep Dive Bible: Greek, which our source spelled in Latin letters, set in Greek letters; entries of one spelling merged into one article; Greek words our source left out (shown as “?”), read from the 1898 printing, from the same plates (the Library of Congress’s copy), where the place could be found with certainty. Of the others, 1,362 (a word or a single letter each) were inferred by AI from the context by the dictionary’s own rules and are marked with a wavy underline (tap or point at one to see the note); the rest, which could not be inferred with confidence, are left as “?”.