exclaim
From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
Alternative forms
- exclame [16th–17th c.]
Etymology
From Middle French exclamer, from Latin exclāmō, exclāmāre (“call out”), from ex- + clāmō (“to call”).
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ɛkˈskleɪm/, /ɪkˈskleɪm/
Audio (Southern England): (file) - Rhymes: -eɪm
Verb
exclaim (third-person singular simple present exclaims, present participle exclaiming, simple past and past participle exclaimed)
- (intransitive) To cry out suddenly, from some strong emotion.
- 1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The First Part of Henry the Sixt”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene iii]:
- I am a soldier, and unapt to weep,
Or to exclaim on fortune’s fickleness.
- 1749, Henry Fielding, chapter 9, in The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, volumes (please specify |volume=I to VI), London: A[ndrew] Millar, […], →OCLC, book 1, page 33:
- Very grave and good Women exclaimed against Men who begot Children and then disowned them.
- 1815 December (indicated as 1816), [Jane Austen], Emma: […], volumes (please specify |volume=I to III), London: […] [Charles Roworth and James Moyes] for John Murray, →OCLC:
- This wretched note was the finale of Emma’s breakfast. When once it had been read, there was no doing any thing, but lament and exclaim.
- 1925, Virginia Woolf, Mrs Dalloway, New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, published 1985, page 114:
- […] he could remember Sally tearing off a rose, stopping to exclaim at the beauty of the cabbage leaves in the moonlight […]
- 2011, Alan Hollinghurst, The Stranger’s Child, New York: Knopf, Part 4, Chapter 1, p. 285:
- […] at the front door below a few guests were leaving, and the bright rectangle widened and narrowed as they slipped out into the night, laughing and exclaiming about the weather.
- (transitive) To say suddenly and with strong emotion.
- 1603, Michael Drayton, “Alice Countesse of Salisburie, to the blacke Prince”, in The Barrons Wars in the Raigne of Edward the Second, London: N. Ling, page 31:
- Must she be forc’d, t’exclaime th’iniurious wrong?
Offred by him, whom she hath lou’d so long?
Nay, I will tell, and I durst almost sweare,
Edward will blush, when he his fault shall heare.
- 1748, [Tobias Smollett], chapter 40, in The Adventures of Roderick Random. […], volumes (please specify |volume=I or II), London: […] [William Strahan] for J[ohn] Osborn […], →OCLC, page 28:
- […] her aunt, after having stared at me a good while with a look of amazement, exclaimed, “In the name of heaven! Who art thou?”—
- 1838 March – 1839 October, Charles Dickens, chapter 12, in The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published 1839, →OCLC:
- Without returning any direct reply, Miss Squeers, all at once, fell into a paroxysm of spiteful tears, and exclaimed that she was a wretched, neglected, miserable castaway.
- 1907 August, Robert W[illiam] Chambers, chapter IX, in The Younger Set, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, →OCLC:
- “Heavens!” exclaimed Nina, “the blue-stocking and the fogy!—and yours are pale blue, Eileen!—you’re about as self-conscious as Drina—slumping there with your hair tumbling à la Mérode! Oh, it's very picturesque, of course, but a straight spine and good grooming is better. […]”
- 2017, André Aciman, “Manfred”, in Enigma Variations, New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, page 135:
- You never pump your arm when you score, you never exclaim anything, you don’t even smile when you fire a perfect backhand straight down the line.
Synonyms
- See also Thesaurus:shout
Derived terms
Related terms
Translations
to cry out
|
Noun
exclaim (plural exclaims)
- (obsolete) Exclamation; outcry, clamor.
- 1595 December 9 (first known performance), William Shakespeare, “The life and death of King Richard the Second”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene 2]:
- Foul devil, for God’s sake, hence, and trouble us not;
For thou hast made the happy earth thy hell,
Fill’d it with cursing cries and deep exclaims.
- 1635, John Donne, His parting form her:
- Oh fortune, thou’rt not worth my least exclame [...].
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