hold forth
verb1
To extend or offer, propose.
2
To talk at great length.
- I bestrode the courtroom entranceway, holding forth on my merits to the assembled press.
- Behind him an excitable Frenchman was holding forth in declamatory style to a group of astonished residents.1908, R. Forsythe, “Our Hippopotamus Hunt”, in The Wide World Magazine, volume XX, London: George Newnes, Ltd., page 400:
3 more examples
- The girls all liked to hear him talk. They often gathered in a little circle while he sat on a bench, and held forth to them, laughing.1913, D[avid] H[erbert] Lawrence, chapter 5, in Sons and Lovers, London: Duckworth & Co. […], →OCLC:
- […]they did not like him coming round of an evening and drinking weak whisky-and-water while he held forth on railway debentures and corporation loans.1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter II, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:
- Warmed to the woman somewhat, I admit it. She holds forth like a man and smokes myrrhy cigarettes through a rhino-horn holder.2004, David Mitchell, Cloud Atlas, London: Sceptre (Hodder and Stoughton), →ISBN, page 55: