[f. the sb.]
1. intr. Of places: To resound with an echo. Also fig.
1596. Shaks., Tam. Shr., III. ii. 181. Kist her lips with such a clamorous smacke That … all the Church did eccho.
1684. Bunyan, Pilgr., 105. And at every Roar it gave, it made all the Valley Eccho.
1747. Hervey, Medit. & Contempl. (1818), 163. All eternity [will] echo to their triumphant acclamations.
1870. Yeats, Nat. Hist. Comm., 93. Larks and nightingales make the sky echo with song.
b. Of a sound: To be repeated by echoes, give rise to echoes, reverberate, resound; hence fig. of rumors, fame, etc.
a. 1559. Sackville, in Mirr. Mag., Induct. xiii. (1563), 116 b. With dolefull shrikes, that eckoed in the skye.
1690. Lond. Gaz., No. 2532/2. This was followed by Long Live King Joseph, which quickly eccho’d all over the City.
1725. De Foe, Voy. round World (1840), 253. That sound echoed and reverberated from innumerable cavities among the rocks.
1801. Southey, Thalaba, V. xxxii. Now the deaden’d roar Echoed beneath.
2. trans. Of places or material objects: To repeat (a sound) by echo.
1855. Bain, Senses & Int., II. i. § 7 (1864), 215. A sound echoed from many sides is made voluminous.
¶ Used for: To reflect (light).
1822. Beddoes, Rom. Lily, Poems, 145. Fair as … The last dim star, with doubtful ray … Echoed to the eye on water.
3. fig. Of persons: To repeat (sounds, words) in the manner of an echo; to repeat the words of, imitate the style or sentiments of (another person); to play the echo to, flatter with servile assent. Of language, compositions, etc.: To imitate, resemble (an earlier model).
1604. Shaks., Oth., III. iii. 107. Othel. What do’st thou thinke? Iago Thinke, my Lord? Othel. Thinke, my Lord? Alas, thou eccho’st me.
1649. Blithe, Eng. Improv. Impr. (1653), 111. All which I Eccho with thee that possibly it may be so.
1759. Franklin, Ess., Wks. 1840, III. 254. This language was never echoed at home.
1839. Keightley, Hist. Eng., II. 32. Posterity have echoed these censures.
1876. Green, Short Hist., vi. § 6 (1882), 333. In England Colet and More echoed, with greater reserve, the scorn and invective of their friends.
b. absol. To repeat words like an echo.
1880. Mrs. Forrester, Roy. & Viola, I. 7. Dreams, indeed, my dear, echoes Netta lightly.
c. intr. To play the echo to.
1637. Heywood, Dialogues, II. 29. Now echo vnto me, and sing, Thou myne.
1702. Rowe, Tamerl., IV. i. 1705. I will Eccho to thee, thou Adulterer, Thou dost profane the name of King and Soldier.
1767. Hugh Kelly, Babler, II. 209. She constantly echoed to his groans.
4. In Whist.
1862. ‘Cavendish,’ Whist (1879), 268. You should not echo a call unless you have at least four trumps.
