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From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Oratory \Or"a*to*ry\, noun; pl. {Oratories}. [OE. oratorie, fr. L. oratorium, fr. oratorius of praying, of an orator: cf. F. oratoire. See {Orator}, {Oral}, and cf. {Oratorio}.] A place of orisons, or prayer; especially, a chapel or small room set apart for private devotions.
An oratory [temple] . . . in worship of Dian. --Chaucer.
Do not omit thy prayers for want of a good oratory, or place to pray in. --Jer. Taylor.
{Fathers of the Oratory} (R. C. Ch.), a society of priests founded by St. Philip Neri, living in community, and not bound by a special vow. The members are called also {oratorians}.
From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Oratory \Or"a*to*ry\, noun [L. oratoria (sc. ars) the oratorical art.] The art of an orator; the art of public speaking in an eloquent or effective manner; the exercise of rhetorical skill in oral discourse; eloquence. ''The oratory of Greece and Rome.'' --Milton.
When a world of men Could not prevail with all their oratory. --Shak.
From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:
oratory
noun: addressing an audience formally (usually a long and rhetorical address and often pompous); "he loved the sound of his own oratory"
From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:
57 Moby Thesaurus words for "oratory": Lady chapel, address, articulateness, articulation, chantry, chapel, chapel of ease, chapel royal, command of language, command of words, debating, declamation, demagogism, diction, effective style, elocution, eloquence, eloquent tongue, enunciation, expression, expressiveness, facundity, felicitousness, felicity, fluency, forensics, gift of expression, gift of gab, glibness, grandiloquence, graphicness, homiletics, lecturing, magniloquence, meaningfulness, oratorium, platform oratory, public speaking, pyrotechnics, rabble-rousing, rhetoric, sacellum, sacrament chapel, sacrarium, school chapel, side chapel, silver tongue, slickness, smoothness, speaking, speechcraft, speechification, speeching, speechmaking, stump speaking, vividness, wordcraft
From THE DEVIL'S DICTIONARY ((C)1911 Released April 15 1993) [devils]:
ORATORY, noun A conspiracy between speech and action to cheat the understanding. A tyranny tempered by stenography.
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