Definition of "oration"

[…] there is ſuch confuſion in my powers, / As after ſome Oration fairely ſpoke / By a beloued Prince, there doth appeare / Among the buzzing pleaſed multitude.

c. 1596–1598 (date written), W[illiam] Shakespeare, The Excellent History of the Merchant of Venice. […] (First Quarto), [London]: […] J[ames] Roberts [for Thomas Heyes], published 1600, [Act III, scene ii]

And vpon a ſet day Herod arayed in royall apparell, ſate vpon his throne, and made an Oration vnto them.

1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], Acts 12:21, column 1

The masters of rhetorick direct, that the most forcible arguments be produced in the latter part of an oration, lest they should be effaced or perplexed by supervenient images.

1752, Samuel Johnson, The Rambler, No. 207, 10 March, 1752, in Volume 6, London: J. Payne and J. Bouquet, 1752, p. 279

[…] when the provinces again displayed their old flags (proscribed in Guzman Bento’s time) there was another of those great orations, when Don José greeted these old emblems of the war of Independence, brought out again in the name of new Ideals.

1904 January 29 – October 7, Joseph Conrad, chapter I, in Nostromo: A Tale of the Seaboard, London, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers […], published 1904, part second (The Isabels), page 112

My Landlord was likewiſe beginning his Oration to Jones, but was preſently interrupted by that generous Youth, who ſhook him heartily by the Hand; and aſſured him of entire Forgiveneſs […]

1749, Henry Fielding, “In which the Arrival of a Man of War puts a final End to Hostilities, and causes the Conclusion of a firm and lasting Peace between all Parties”, in The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, volume III, London: A[ndrew] Millar, […], book IX, page 338

Sally bustled off to set on the kettle for tea, and felt half ashamed, in the quiet of the kitchen, to think of the oration she had made in the parlour.

1854, Elizabeth Gaskell, chapter 16, in Ruth‎

The supper things cleared away, Gerald resumed his oration, but with little satisfaction to himself and none at all to his audience.

1936 June 30, Margaret Mitchell, chapter IV, in Gone with the Wind, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; republished New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company, 1944, part I, page 63

They gave answers with great sufficiency touching all difficulties concerning their own law, and had marvellous promptitude both for orationing and giving judgement.

1633, John Donne (attributed translator), The Auncient History of the Septuagint. Written in Greeke, by Aristeus 1900. yeares since, London, p. 80, cited in Henry Todd, A Dictionary of the English Language, London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, 1818, Volume 3

[…] Master Primmer is the man for my money; a man of learning; that can lay down the law: why, adzooks, he is wise enough to puzzle the parson: and then, how you have heard him oration at the Adam and Eve of a Saturday night, about Russia and Prussia […]

1764, Samuel Foote, The Mayor of Garratt, Act II, in The Dramatic Works of Samuel Foote, Dublin: S. Price et al., 1778, Volume 1, p. 286

What right have you to be lecturing and orationing? You’ve no knowledge.

1876, George Meredith, chapter 10, in Beauchamp’s Career‎, volume 2, Leipzig: Bernhard Tauchnitz, page 129