a. [a. Fr. éloquent, ad L. ēloquent-em, pr. pple., f. ēloqui to speak out.]
1. Of persons: Possessing or exercising the power of fluent, forcible and appropriate expression.
1393. Gower, Conf., II. 288. In his speche Of wordes he was eloquent.
1480. Caxton, Chron. Eng., ccxxxvii. 261. A wyse knyȝt and a trewe and an eloquent man.
1586. T. B., La Primaud. Fr. Acad., I. (1589), 249. The eloquentest orator in the world.
1651. Hobbes, Leviath., I. xi. 49. Eloquent speakers are enclined to ambition; for Eloquence seemeth Wisdom, both to themselves and others.
a. 1714. Burnet, Own Time (1766), I. 172. The eloquentest man of that time.
1874. Morley, Compromise (1886), 48. The school of which M. Renan is the most eloquent representative.
b. transf. and fig.
1599. Shaks., Hen. V., III. vii. 37. Turne the Sands into eloquent tongues.
1781. Gibbon, Decl. & F., III. lxx. 774. His pen was not less eloquent than his tongue.
1814. S. Rogers, Jacquel., I. 81. Her dark eyes—how eloquent!
1862. Trollope, Orley F., xxxix. There is a silence which may be more eloquent than the sounds which it follows.
2. Of utterances or style: Characterized by forcible and appropriate expression.
1393. Gower, Conf., III. 85. Rhetorique, whose facounde Above all other is eloquent.
1509. Hawes, Past. Pleas., XVIII. xxi. Your payne and wordes eloquent.
a. 1591. H. Smith, Wks. (1866–7), I. 79. To the godly it seemeth the wisest, and eloquentest, and sweetest, and easiest book of all others.
1627. Donne, Serm. (1640), v. 49. As powerfull, as the eloquentest Sermon.
1806. Med. Jrnl., XV. 81. The author of this eloquent little pamphlet.
1841. Lane, Arab. Nts., I. 105. Well-shaped, and of eloquent speech.
† 3. humorously. That inspires eloquence.
1599. Porter, Angry Wom. Abingt. (1841), 22. You have the most eloquenst ale in all the world.
