expound
verb /ɪkˈspaʊnd/
/ɪkˈspaʊnd/
[transitive, intransitive] (formal)Verb Forms
| present simple I / you / we / they expound | /ɪkˈspaʊnd/ /ɪkˈspaʊnd/ |
| he / she / it expounds | /ɪkˈspaʊndz/ /ɪkˈspaʊndz/ |
| past simple expounded | /ɪkˈspaʊndɪd/ /ɪkˈspaʊndɪd/ |
| past participle expounded | /ɪkˈspaʊndɪd/ /ɪkˈspaʊndɪd/ |
| -ing form expounding | /ɪkˈspaʊndɪŋ/ /ɪkˈspaʊndɪŋ/ |
- to explain something by talking about it in detail
- expound something (to somebody) He expounded his views on the subject to me at great length.
- the theory of language expounded by Chomsky
- She expounded her theory further in the course of her talk.
- These ideas were originally expounded by Plato.
- expound on something We listened as she expounded on the government's new policies.
Oxford Collocations DictionaryExpound is used with these nouns as the object:- doctrine
- idea
- view
- …
Word OriginMiddle English expoune (in the sense ‘explain (what is difficult)’): from Old French espon-, present tense stem of espondre, from Latin exponere ‘expose, publish, explain’, from ex- ‘out’ + ponere ‘put’. The origin of the final -d (recorded from the Middle English period) is uncertain (compare with compound, propound).