vbl. sb. [f. as prec.] The action or fact of making or delivering speeches.
1718. J. Trapp, trans. Virgil, Pref. to Æneis (1735), I. p. xl. I do not understand why Speech-making in an Heroick Poem must be called Dramatic.
1820. T. Mitchell, Aristoph., I. p. lxiii. When a mania took place in Athens, whether for cock-fighting or speech-making,… it was no slight obstacle that could oppose it.
1870. Disraeli, Lothair, xlix. 264. Speech-making is a new thing for me.
1876. Ruskin, St. Mark’s Rest, iv. § 47. Through sixteen hundred years of effort and speech-making, and fighting.
b. An instance or occasion of this.
1835. J. Foster, Life & Corr. (1846), II. 302. Some of our journals and speech-makings.
1845. Dickens, Chimes, ii. (ed. 2), 73. Don’t look for me to come up into the Park when there’s a Birthday, or a fine Speechmaking.
