Saturday, July 25, 2009

Voluble Meaning and Usage


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Meaning
:

Adjective

- Easily rolling or turning; easily set in motion; apt to roll; rotating;
"voluble particles of matter"


- Moving with ease and smoothness in uttering words;
of rapid speech; nimble in speaking; glib;


- Marked by a ready flow of speech; fluent; ability to use words easily, glib;
“a voluble spokesman for the cause.”


- Botany. Twining or twisting; "a voluble vine
"


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Derivatives:

volubility - noun

volubleness - noun
volubly - adverb

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Synonyms:
articulate, articulateness, bombastic, candid, chatty, communicative, conversational, effusive, expansive, exuberant, flip, fluency, fluent, forthcoming, frank, gabby, garrulous, gassy, glib, gossipy, gregarious, gushy, loquacious, multiloquent, multiloquious, newsy, overtalkative, profuse, prolix, silver-tongued, smooth, sociable, talkative, talky, verbose, vocative, windy, wordy.



Antonyms:
mute, taciturn, uncommunicative, reticent


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Use Voluble in a sentence:

1. She is an extremely voluble young woman who engages in soliloquies not conversations.

2. Clarissa was extremely voluble on the subject of good manners.

3. The young man proved to be a voluble informer who would tell stories of bookies, smugglers, and hit men to the detectives for hours.

4. While attending a recent rally, the audience was quite annoyed with the voluble speech that was given by one of the presenters. It kept droning on endlessly.

5. A disc jockey needs to be a voluble speaker.

6. A lively, voluble man, Spencer was sometimes daunting in his reckless energy.

7. She had wondered whether he would be cold and distant, or voluble and heated.

8. Although the town councilman had a reputation for reserve, at the information session that night he was so voluble that everyone received a great deal of information about the proposed tax increase.

9. Philip in his voluble anger stopped suddenly at the sound of her voice. It was heart-broken. He had not realized what bitter things he was saying.

10. The boarding-house to which they had been directed was kept by a bustling maiden lady, with shrewd eyes and voluble speech.

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Origin:

1575, "liable to constant change," from Fr. voluble, from L. volubilis "that turns around, rolling, flowing, fluent" (of speech), from volvere "to turn around, roll" Meaning "fluent, talkative" first recorded 1588.

Did you know?
English has many terms for gabby types, but it's important to choose the right word to get across what kind of chatterbox you mean. "Talkative" usually implies a readiness to engage in talk or a disposition to enjoy conversation." "Loquacious" generally suggests the power to express oneself fluently, articulately, or glibly, but it can also mean "talking excesively." "Garrulous" is even stronger in its suggestion of excessive talkativeness; it is most often used for tedious, rambling talkers. "Voluble" describes an individual who speaks easily and often.

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Some more examples:


1. “That sound . . . that, and the screams of wounded men and horses . . . for once in his life, even the normally voluble Cuthbert had been struck silent.”

2. He is the House of Commons' most voluble advocate of capital punishment.

3. The owner, 42-year-old Christian Mittermeier, is a voluble, bear-like man who apprenticed as a butcher as a teenager, before managing a small hotel just outside of town.

4. The days passed somehow, and finally there came the morning when, accompanied by Uncle Chris--voluble and explanatory about the details of what he called "getting everything settled"--she rode in a taxi to take the train for Southampton.

5. That certainly rules this Federation out as only the more voluble consumer groups will have the financial means to fund air fares to Italy.

7. Even the normally voluble Lembit was reduced to saying Oaten should be given "space".

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