Definition of "declaim" [de•claim]

• To deliver a formal recitation, especially as an exercise in rhetoric or elocution. (verb-intransitive)
• To speak loudly and vehemently; inveigh. (verb-intransitive)
• To utter or recite with rhetorical effect. (verb-transitive)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• ""There's a fierce gray bird with a bending beak," that the boys loved so dearly to "declaim;" and another poem by this last author, which we all liked to read, partly from a childish love of the tragic, and partly for its graphic description of an avalanche's movement: --"
• "From the latter, there are some who pretend to be free: they are generally such as declaim against the lust of wealth and power, because they have never been able to attain any high degree in either: they boast of generosity and feeling."
• "Only Thor's evil brother, Loki Tom Hiddleston, gets to declaim any flavorsome lines."