Intoning

This intoning is always a matter of crescendo and diminuendo in the intensity -- a rising and falling between plain speaking and wild chanting. ❋ Charles Buckles (1960)

"I don't call intoning proper solemnity," said Miss Leonora. ❋ Unknown (1862)

He had introduced a kind of intoning at public meetings. ❋ Maria Louise Greene (N/A)

There are some things in the mode of speaking among the Friends, particularly in their public meetings, which do not strike me agreeably, and to which I think it would take me some time to become accustomed; such as a kind of intoning somewhat similar to the manner in which the church service is performed in cathedrals. ❋ Harriet Beecher Stowe (1853)

An amply endowed young woman in a spandex outfit was bent over him, slapping his cheek and breathlessly intoning, Are you alright? ❋ Gerard Varni (2011)

For the last two decades, the computing and media industries have been intoning their own version of "plastics". ❋ Unknown (2012)

Kelley O'Connor, tall and hieratic, was the alto soloist, intoning the final lament with sepulchral beauty, if occasional unsteadiness. ❋ Unknown (2011)

Look at it, it's the Star of David that has teeth, it's LEADING the headless goosestepping soldier, intoning that it is the RELIGION leading the war. ❋ Unknown (2009)

(Hillaire Belloc noted once that, while Jacobite songs were often heard in English homes, he had been warned by the gendarmerie for intoning “Vexilla regis” on a beach in Brittany.) ❋ Unknown (2010)

At the Y, Miles exhibited her famed comic timing, especially intoning the name of her character, the actress Alexandra Del Lago. ❋ Regina Weinreich (2011)

As the cow performs the running man across the table top, however, there's a sudden realisation that the voice intoning "I like the way you let me squeeze you/I like the way you taste so fine" doesn't belong to the cow, but to Belinda, who, after years of Stepford Wife-level Sunday roast heroics now has the internal monologue of a gruff man and fantasises about farmyard animals doing gymnastics around her condiments. ❋ Unknown (2011)

Hark! what's that? — the monks intoning in the chapel close at hand? ❋ Unknown (2010)

Since then, she has wafted through the rarified air of the global bien-pensants, intoning fashionable left-wing, anti-American opinions to audiences who hear that sort of thing five times a day. ❋ Unknown (2009)

A catharsis of sorts rekindles, intoning archaic dreams ❋ WhinZa KingSlée (2011)

The fans of Philadelphia, not noted for their easy praise, were intoning two words. ❋ Unknown (2009)

Men in dark pants, white shirts and suspenders hustle around with scripts in hand, intoning into stand-up microphones and creating their own alarming sound effects as they chronicle the fake Martian invasion. ❋ Nelson Pressley (2010)

It won't be enough to compare grunting, sweating pickups hauling railroad ties up some muddy track, with the actor Sam Elliott intoning through his mustache about "more horsepower, more torque." ❋ Dan Neil (2011)

Apart from that, bring on series three and the Crawley girls in flapper dresses intoning: "Carson, fetch the cocaine!" ❋ Unknown (2011)

Similarly, after Little Britain and Tom Baker intoning the words "Britain, Britain, Britain" over a daft montage of We As A Nation types, you'd think the coffin lid would have been nailed on sweeping, cliched programmes with the word "Britain" in the title. ❋ Unknown (2011)