EXHORTATION

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does exhortation mean? 

• EXHORTATION (noun)
  The noun EXHORTATION has 2 senses:

1. a communication intended to urge or persuade the recipients to take some action

2. the act of exhorting; an earnest attempt at persuasion

  Familiarity information: EXHORTATION used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• EXHORTATION (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A communication intended to urge or persuade the recipients to take some action

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Hypernyms ("exhortation" is a kind of...):

communicating; communication (the activity of communicating; the activity of conveying information)

Derivation:

exhort (force or impel in an indicated direction)

exhort (spur on or encourage especially by cheers and shouts)

Sense 2

Meaning:

The act of exhorting; an earnest attempt at persuasion

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Synonyms:

exhortation; incitement

Hypernyms ("exhortation" is a kind of...):

persuasion; suasion (the act of persuading (or attempting to persuade); communication intended to induce belief or action)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "exhortation"):

pep talk (a speech of exhortation attempting to instill enthusiasm and determination in a team or staff)

Derivation:

exhort (force or impel in an indicated direction)

exhort (spur on or encourage especially by cheers and shouts)

 Context examples 

The mild exhortations of the old man and the lively conversation of the loved Felix were not for me.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

My master added, that he was daily pressed by the Houyhnhnms of the neighbourhood to have the assembly’s exhortation executed, which he could not put off much longer.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

His drawn brows and the deep furrow between them showed that he needed no exhortation to concentrate all his attention upon a problem which, apart from the tremendous interests involved must appeal so directly to his love of the complex and the unusual.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

My father had risen to depart, but the admiral, with that kindliness which he ever showed to the young, and which had been momentarily chilled by the unfortunate splendour of my clothes, still paced up and down in front of us, shooting out crisp little sentences of exhortation and advice.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

A brief address on those occasions would not be mistimed, wherein a judicious instructor would take the opportunity of referring to the sufferings of the primitive Christians; to the torments of martyrs; to the exhortations of our blessed Lord Himself, calling upon His disciples to take up their cross and follow Him; to His warnings that man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God; to His divine consolations, If ye suffer hunger or thirst for My sake, happy are ye.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

Agatha listened with respect, her eyes sometimes filled with tears, which she endeavoured to wipe away unperceived; but I generally found that her countenance and tone were more cheerful after having listened to the exhortations of her father.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

I answered in a faint voice, that death would have been too great a happiness; that although I could not blame the assembly’s exhortation, or the urgency of his friends; yet, in my weak and corrupt judgment, I thought it might consist with reason to have been less rigorous; that I could not swim a league, and probably the nearest land to theirs might be distant above a hundred: that many materials, necessary for making a small vessel to carry me off, were wholly wanting in this country; which, however, I would attempt, in obedience and gratitude to his honour, although I concluded the thing to be impossible, and therefore looked on myself as already devoted to destruction; that the certain prospect of an unnatural death was the least of my evils; for, supposing I should escape with life by some strange adventure, how could I think with temper of passing my days among Yahoos, and relapsing into my old corruptions, for want of examples to lead and keep me within the paths of virtue? that I knew too well upon what solid reasons all the determinations of the wise Houyhnhnms were founded, not to be shaken by arguments of mine, a miserable Yahoo; and therefore, after presenting him with my humble thanks for the offer of his servants’ assistance in making a vessel, and desiring a reasonable time for so difficult a work, I told him I would endeavour to preserve a wretched being; and if ever I returned to England, was not without hopes of being useful to my own species, by celebrating the praises of the renowned Houyhnhnms, and proposing their virtues to the imitation of mankind.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

I should here observe to the reader, that a decree of the general assembly in this country is expressed by the word hnhloayn, which signifies an exhortation, as near as I can render it; for they have no conception how a rational creature can be compelled, but only advised, or exhorted; because no person can disobey reason, without giving up his claim to be a rational creature.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)