Part 340

4. Consecutive speech, either written or unwritten, on a given line of thought; speech; treatise; dissertation; sermon, etc.; as, the preacher gave us a long discourse on duty.

5. Dealing; transaction. [Obs.]

Good Captain Bessus, tell us the discourse Betwixt Tigranes and our king, and how We got the victory.

Beau. & Fl.

Dis*course" (?), v. i. [imp. & p. p. Discoursed (?); p. pr. & vb. n. Discoursing.] 1. To exercise reason; to employ the mind in judging and inferring; to reason. [Obs.] "Have sense or can discourse." Dryden.

2. To express one's self in oral discourse; to expose one's views; to talk in a continuous or formal manner; to hold forth; to speak; to converse.

Bid me discourse, I will enchant thine ear.

Shak.

3. To relate something; to tell. Shak.

4. To treat of something in writing and formally.

Dis*course", v. t. 1. To treat of; to expose or set forth in language. [Obs.]

The life of William Tyndale . . . is sufficiently and at large discoursed in the book.

Foxe.

2. To utter or give forth; to speak.

It will discourse most eloquent music.

Shak.

3. To talk to; to confer with. [Obs.]

I have spoken to my brother, who is the patron, to discourse the minister about it.

Evelyn.

Dis*cours"er (?), n. 1. One who discourse; a narrator; a speaker; an haranguer.

In his conversation he was the most clear discourser.

Milward.

2. The writer of a treatise or dissertation.

Philologers and critical discoursers.

Sir T. Browne.

Dis*cours"ive (?), a. [See Discursive.] 1. Reasoning; characterized by reasoning; passing from premises to consequences; discursive. Milton.

2. Containing dialogue or conversation; interlocutory.

The epic is everywhere interlaced with dialogue or discoursive scenes.