Voice (?), n. [OE. vois, voys,
OF. vois, voiz, F. voix, L. vox, vocis,
akin to Gr. ? a word, ? a voice, Skr. vac to say, to speak, G.
erwähnen to mention. Cf. Advocate, Advowson,
Avouch, Convoke, Epic, Vocal, Vouch,
Vowel.] 1. Sound uttered by the mouth,
especially that uttered by human beings in speech or song; sound thus
uttered considered as possessing some special quality or character; as, the
human voice; a pleasant voice; a low voice.
He with a manly voice saith his message.
Chaucer.
Her voice was ever soft,
Gentle, and low; an excellent thing in woman.
Shak.
Thy voice is music.
Shak.
Join thy voice unto the angel choir.
Milton.
2. (Phon.) Sound of the kind or quality
heard in speech or song in the consonants b, v, d,
etc., and in the vowels; sonant, or intonated, utterance; tone; --
distinguished from mere breath sound as heard in f, s,
sh, etc., and also whisper.
☞ Voice, in this sense, is produced by vibration of the so-called
vocal cords in the larynx (see Illust. of Larynx) which act
upon the air, not in the manner of the strings of a stringed instrument,
but as a pair of membranous tongues, or reeds, which, being continually
forced apart by the outgoing current of breath, and continually brought
together again by their own elasticity and muscular tension, break the
breath current into a series of puffs, or pulses, sufficiently rapid to
cause the sensation of tone. The power, or loudness, of such a tone
depends on the force of the separate pulses, and this is determined by the
pressure of the expired air, together with the resistance on the part of
the vocal cords which is continually overcome. Its pitch depends on
the number of aërial pulses within a given time, that is, on the
rapidity of their succession. See Guide to Pronunciation,
§§ 5, 146, 155.
3. The tone or sound emitted by anything.
After the fire a still small voice.
1
Kings xix. 12.
Canst thou thunder with a voice like
him?
Job xl. 9.
The floods have lifted up their voice.
Ps. xciii. 3.
O Marcus, I am warm'd; my heart
Leaps at the trumpet's voice.
Addison.
4. The faculty or power of utterance; as, to
cultivate the voice.
5. Language; words; speech; expression;
signification of feeling or opinion.
I desire to be present with you now, and to change my
voice; for I stand in doubt of you.
Gal. iv.
20.
My voice is in my sword.
Shak.
Let us call on God in the voice of his
church.
Bp. Fell.
6. Opinion or choice expressed; judgment; a
vote.
Sic. How now, my masters! have you chose this
man?
1 Cit. He has our voices, sir.
Shak.
Some laws ordain, and some attend the choice
Of holy senates, and elect by voice.
Dryden.
7. Command; precept; -- now chiefly used in
scriptural language.
So shall ye perish; because ye would not be obedient unto
the voice of the Lord your God.
Deut. viii.
20.
8. One who speaks; a speaker. "A potent
voice of Parliament." Tennyson.
9. (Gram.) A particular mode of inflecting
or conjugating verbs, or a particular form of a verb, by means of which is
indicated the relation of the subject of the verb to the action which the
verb expresses.
Active voice (Gram.), that form of the verb
by which its subject is represented as the agent or doer of the action
expressed by it. -- Chest voice (Phon.),
a kind of voice of a medium or low pitch and of a sonorous quality
ascribed to resonance in the chest, or thorax; voice of the thick register.
It is produced by vibration of the vocal cords through their entire width
and thickness, and with convex surfaces presented to each other. --
Head voice (Phon.), a kind of voice of high
pitch and of a thin quality ascribed to resonance in the head; voice of the
thin register; falsetto. In producing it, the vibration of the cords is
limited to their thin edges in the upper part, which are then presented to
each other. -- Middle voice (Gram.), that
form of the verb by which its subject is represented as both the agent, or
doer, and the object of the action, that is, as performing some act to or
upon himself, or for his own advantage. -- Passive
voice. (Gram.) See under Passive,
a. -- Voice glide (Pron.),
the brief and obscure neutral vowel sound that sometimes occurs between
two consonants in an unaccented syllable (represented by the apostrophe),
as in able (a"b'l). See Glide, n., 2.
-- Voice stop. See Voiced stop, under
Voiced, a. -- With one
voice, unanimously. "All with one voice . . .
cried out, Great is Diana of the Ephesians." Acts xix. 34.