so to speak

speak  (spk)

v. spoke (spk), spo·ken (spkn), speak·ing, speaks

v.intr.

1. To utter words or articulate sounds with ordinary speech modulation; talk.

2.

a. To convey thoughts, opinions, or emotions orally.

b. To express oneself.

c. To be on speaking terms: They are no longer speaking.

3. To deliver an address or lecture: The mayor spoke at the rally.

4.

a. To make a statement in writing: The biography speaks of great loneliness.

b. To act as spokesperson: spoke for the entire staff.

5.

a. To convey a message by nonverbal means: Actions speak louder than words.

b. To be expressive: spoke with her eyes.

c. To be appealing: His poetry speaks to one's heart.

6. To make a reservation or request. Often used with for: Is this dance spoken for? I spoke for the last slice of pizza.

7.

a. To produce a characteristic sound: The drums spoke.

b. To give off a sound on firing. Used of guns or cannon.

8. To make communicative sounds.

9. To give an indication or a suggestion: His manners spoke of good upbringing.

v.tr.

1. To articulate in a speaking voice: spoke words of wisdom.

2. To converse in or be able to converse in (a language): speaks German.

3.

a. To express aloud; tell: speak the truth.

b. To express in writing.

4. Nautical To hail and communicate with (another vessel) at sea.

5. To convey by nonverbal means: His eyes spoke volumes.

Phrasal Verbs:

speak out

To talk freely and fearlessly, as about a public issue.

speak up

1. To speak loud enough to be audible.

2. To speak without fear or hesitation.

Idioms:

so to speak

In a manner of speaking: can't see the forest for the trees, so to speak.

speak down to

To speak condescendingly to: She never spoke down to her audience.

to speak of

Worthy of mention: There's nothing new to speak of.

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[Middle English speken, from Old English sprecan, specan.]

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speaka·ble adj.

Synonyms: speak, talk, converse¹, discourse
These verbs mean to express one's thoughts by uttering words. Speak and talk, often interchangeable, are the most general: He ate without once speaking to his companion. "On an occasion of this kind it becomes more than a moral duty to speak one's mind. It becomes a pleasure" (Oscar Wilde). I want to talk with you about vacation plans. "Let's talk sense to the American people" (Adlai E. Stevenson).
Converse stresses interchange of thoughts and ideas: "With thee conversing I forget all time" (John Milton).
Discourse usually refers to formal, extended speech: "striding through the city, stick in hand, discoursing spontaneously on the writings of Hazlitt" (Manchester Guardian Weekly).

Word History: Because English is a Germanic language, first-year German produces many moments of recognition for English speakers and several puzzles. For example, when we learn the verb sprechen, sprach, gesprochen, "to speak," and the noun Sprache, "speech, language," we wonder whether we lost the r or the Germans put one in. Sounds are more often lost than added in language change, and this is the case here. In Old English the verb was sprecan, the noun sprc, both with an r as in German (and in the other Germanic languages). The r-less forms began to appear in the south of England and became common in the 11th century; the forms with r disappeared completely by the middle of the 12th. A similar loss of r after a consonant and before a vowel occurred in the Middle English noun prang and its variant pronge, "severe pain, sharp pain." Pronge survives today as prong (of a pitchfork, for example). The plural of prang appears in a poem composed about 1400 as pangus, "sharp stabs of pain," and survives today as pang, "sharp, stabbing pain."

Thesaurus

Adv.	1.	so to speak - as if it were really so; "she lives here, as it were" as it were
	2.	so to speak - in a manner of speaking; "the feeling is, as we say, quite dead" as we say