[f. WORD sb.; cf. OHG. wortôn in spilewortôn to jest, MHG. worten to converse, discourse, ON. orða to talk, Goth. -waurdjan to speak).]
1. intr. To utter words; to speak, talk. Obs. or arch.
c. 1205. Lay., 18052. Þe king wordede þus.
1393. Langl., P. Pl., C. XIV. 246. Whi ȝe worden to me þus was for ich aresonede reson.
a. 1400[?]. Morte Arth., 3393. And now wate thow my woo, worde as the lykes.
c. 1400. Beryn, 3261. Al be that Geffrey wordit sotilly, The Steward & þe burgeysis held it for foly, Al that evir he seyd.
1690. C. Nesse, O. & N. Test., I. 131. The judge … will not ask men … how they have worded, but how they have walked.
1819. Keats, Hyperion, II. 251. Thus wording timidly among the fierce.
1850. [see WORDING vbl. sb. 1].
b. To word it: to talk, esp. excessively or violently; to have (high) words with. Obs. or dial.
1612. Webster, White Devil, II. i. C 3 b. My Lords, you shall not word it any further Without a milder limit.
1613. Day, Dyall, vi. (1614), 102. I will not stand wording it with our Adversaries.
1643. Trapp, Comm. Gen. xi. 7. Thus God words it with them. Ibid. (1647), Comm. Jas. iii. 13 (1656), 909. [Who is a Wise man.] Not he that words it most; for multiloquio stultiloquium.
1692. L’Estrange, Fables, ccccxxiii. 399. He that … contemns a Shrew to the Degree of not Descending to Word it with her.
a. 1716. South, Serm. (1744), X. 148. Men may snarl, and word it high against providence.
a. 1825. Forby, Voc. E. Anglia, Word, to dispute; to wrangle. Ex. ‘They worded it a long while.’
2. trans. To utter in words, say, speak (occas. as distinct from singing); † also, to speak of, mention. Obs. or arch.
13[?]. E. E. Allit. P., C. 421. When I hade worded quatsoeuer I cowþe, To manace alle þise mody men.
1606. Shaks., Ant. & Cl., IV. xiii. 9. Say, that the last I spoke was Anthony, And word it (prythee) pitteously. Ibid. (1611), Cymb., IV. ii. 240. I cannot sing: Ile weepe, and word it with thee.
1663. Waterhouse, Fortescutus Illustratus, 424. This way of Government being … changed,… it was made capitall (not onely to endeavour, but even to word the restitution thereof).
1849. [see WORDING vbl. sb. 1].
† 3. a. To ply or urge with words. Obs. rare.
1606. Shaks., Ant. & Cl., V. ii. 191. He words me Gyrles, he words me, That I should not be Noble to my selfe.
† b. To bring by the use of words (into or out of a specified condition or course of action). Obs.
c. 1645. Howell, Lett. (1650), II. xix. 32. To have to doe with perverse irrationall half-witted men, and to be worded to death with nonsence.
1692. South, Serm., I. Ep. Ded. A 3 b. Men are not to be Worded into new Tempers, or Constitutions. Ibid. (a. 1716), 1 Peter ii. 23 (1744), VIII. 187. Not … to word away our souls, or declaim ourselves into perdition.
4. To express in or put into words; to compose, draw up. Obs. exc. as in b.
1613. (title) Songs of Mourning… Worded by Tho. Campion. And set forth to bee sung with one voyce to the Lute, or Violl: by John Coprario.
1623. Lisle, Ælfric on O. & N. Test., To Rdr. 32. It would giue vs occasion either in wording or sentensing the principall parts thereof to looke back a little into this outworne dialect.
1654. R. Whitlock, Ζωοτομια, 210. Before the first Logician ever worded a Proposition.
1658–9. Burton’s Diary (1828), IV. 225. I would have the question worded, before you rise, lest to-morrow be spent in it.
a. 1700. Ken, Hymnotheo, Poet. Wks. 1721, III. 282. Love dictated, Love worded ev’ry Line.
1806. W. Taylor, in Ann. Rev., IV. 604. Spreading languages … have flourished and have faded, without wording one eminent narrative poem.
1831. Gen. P. Thompson, Exerc. (1842), I. 456. This statement of limits is found worded over again in the Protocol.
b. esp., and now only, with reference to the kind of language or form of words used; hence freq. with advb. qualification.
1619. Middleton, Love & Antiq., Wks. (Bullen), VII. 315. Triumphs, wherein Art hath been but weakly imitated and most beggarly worded.
1671. Baxter, Holiness, lxiv. 18. They have not the skil to word and methodize their notions rightly.
1701. J. Norris, Ideal World, I. ii. 126. ’Tis in reality one and the same question, only differently worded.
1713. Pope, Lett. to Addison, 14 Dec. This little instant of our life, which (as Shakespear finely words it) is rounded with a sleep.
1836. Thirlwall, Greece, xx. III. 153. Instructions angrily worded.
1883. Miss Broughton, Belinda, I. viii. It is coarsely worded, I admit,… but, believe me, the advice is sound.
1908. R. Bagot, A. Cuthbert, xxii. 267. She kept repeating to herself various ways of wording her message; for it was … no easy one to construct.
c. nonce-uses. To represent as in words; to pad out with (unnecessary) words.
1611. Shaks., Cymb., I. iv. 16. This matter of marrying his Kings Daughter … words him (I doubt not) a great deale from the matter.
1646. T. Coleman, Brotherly Exam. Re-ex., Postscript 22. Pamphlets … wherein six pages … are worded out to thirty six.
