dē-clāmo — Lewis & Short
dē-clāmo, āvi, ātum, 1, v. n. and
I a.— Rhetor. t. t., to exercise one's self in rhetorical delivery, to practise speaking, to declaim. For syn. cf.: dictito, concionor, pronuntio, palam dico, praedico, recito, declamito. (Class., most freq. in Cic. and Quint.)
I In a good sense.
(a) Neutr.:
ad fluctum aiunt declamare solitum Demosthenem, ut fremitum assuesceret voce vincere,Cic. Fin. 5, 2, 5; id. fragm. ap. Quint. 6, 3, 73: dum tu declamas Romae, * Hor. Ep. 1, 2, 2:
declamare doces?Juv. 7, 150:
haec est sedes orationis, hic laus omnis declamantium,Quint. 9, 4, 62 (al. declamat) et saep.— Pass. impers.:
in eo, quomodo declametur, positum est etiam, quomodo agatur,Quint. 9, 2, 81.—
(b) Act. (rare; not in Cic.; cf., on the contrary, declamito, no. I. b):
suasorias,Quint. 3, 8, 61.—
B Poet., in gen., to speak oratorically, to declaim:
quis nisi mentis inops tenerae declamet amicae?Ov. A. A. 1, 465.—
II In a bad sense, to speak as an orator with violence, to declaim, to bluster, bawl:
ille insanus, qui pro isto vehementissime contra me declamasset,Cic. Verr. 2, 4, 66 fin.;
so in quemvis,id. Fam. 3, 11, 2:
aliquid ex alia oratione declamare,id. Rosc. Am. 29 fin.