SAYING • E-FREE TRANSLATION.COM • Definition of Saying

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/sˈeɪɪŋ/ Listen

verb

Say v. t. (past & past part. said; pres. part. saying)

1.

To utter or express in words; to tell; to speak; to declare; as, he said many wise things. "Arise, and say how thou camest here."

2.

To repeat; to rehearse; to recite; to pronounce; as, to say a lesson. "Of my instruction hast thou nothing bated In what thou hadst to say?" "After which shall be said or sung the following hymn."

3.

To announce as a decision or opinion; to state positively; to assert; hence, to form an opinion upon; to be sure about; to be determined in mind as to. "But what it is, hard is to say."

4.

To mention or suggest as an estimate, hypothesis, or approximation; hence, to suppose; in the imperative, followed sometimes by the subjunctive; as, he had, say fifty thousand dollars; the fox had run, say ten miles. "Say, for nonpayment that the debt should double, Is twenty hundred kisses such a trouble?"

It is said, or They say, it is commonly reported; it is rumored; people assert or maintain.

That is to say, that is; in other words; otherwise.

Say v. i. (past & past part. said; pres. part. saying) To speak; to express an opinion; to make answer; to reply. "You have said; but whether wisely or no, let the forest judge." "To this argument we shall soon have said; for what concerns it us to hear a husband divulge his household privacies?"

noun

Saying n. That which is said; a declaration; a statement, especially a proverbial one; an aphorism; a proverb. "Many are the sayings of the wise, In ancient and in modern books enrolled."

Synonyms: Declaration; speech; adage; maxim; aphorism; apothegm; saw; proverb; byword.

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Etymology of 'Saying'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Saying" Quotes from Famous Books

... pepper horn, footstools, chairs, basins, lamp, lantern, leathern bottles, comb, iron bin, fodder rack, meal ark or box, oil flask, oven rake, dung shovel; altogether a very complete list, the compiler of which ends by saying that the reeve ought to neglect nothing that should prove useful, not even a mousetrap, nor even, what is less, ...

— A Short History of English Agriculture • W. H. R. Curtler

... am not to be had, make your end of the thong fast round that large stone there." Campana did so. "Ah, that will do." And so saying, the skipper warped himself to the top of the cliff with great agility. He was no sooner in safety himself, however, than the idea of having left the poor doctor ...

— Tom Cringle's Log • Michael Scott

... the King was saying, "that God has spoken to me and commanded me to save from the fires of hell the inhabitants of those golden lands of which you sang. And to you, my dear Colombo, is to be given the chance which you ...

— A Parody Outline of History • Donald Ogden Stewart

... with a weak voice finally changed the current of talk by saying, "Well, I guess I kin stay: there 's some cold things at home that my man kin git, an' the childern 'll git off to school by themselves. They ...

— The Uncalled - A Novel • Paul Laurence Dunbar

... things with such clearness of vision, brought out the charm of the popular ballad for readers of a later day in his remark that the value of these songs of the people is to be found in the fact that their motives are drawn directly from nature; and he added, that in the art of saying things compactly, uneducated men have greater skill than those who are educated. It is certainly true that no kind of verse is so completely out of the atmosphere of modern writing as the popular ballad. No other form of verse has, therefore, ...

— The Book of Old English Ballads • George Wharton Edwards

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