Lewis & Short

ōrātor, ōris, m. [oro, one who speaks].

  1. I. A speaker, orator (very common in all periods and styles of writing): eum (oratorem) puto esse, qui et verbis ad audiendum jucundis et sententiis ad probandum accommodatis uti possit in causis forensibus atque communibus. Hunc ego appello oratorem, eumque esse praeterea instructum voce et actione et lepore quodam volo, Cic. de Or. 1, 49, 213: is orator erit, meā sententiā, hoc tam gravi dignus nomine, qui, quaecunque res inciderit, quae sit dictione explicanda, prudenter et composite et ornate et memoriter dicet cum quādam actionis etiam dignitate, id. ib. 1, 15, 64; id. Or. 19, 61: spernitur orator bonus, horridus miles amatur, Enn. ap. Gell. 20, 10 (Ann. v. 273 Vahl.): additur orator Cornelius suaviloquenti Ore, id. ap. Cic. Brut. 15, 58 (Ann. v. 304 ib.): oratorem celeriter complexi sumus, i. e. eloquence, id. Tusc. 1, 3, 5.
    1. B. Esp.
      1. 1. The orator, i. e. Cicero, Lact. 1, 9, 3.
      2. 2. Title of a treatise by Cicero: Orator, Cic. Fam. 15, 20.
  2. II. A speaker, spokesman of an errand or embassy: aequom’st eram oratores mittere ad me, donaque, Plaut. Stich. 2, 1, 18; cf. id. Most. 5, 2, 21; id. Poen. 1, 2, 145.
    Esp., an ambassador charged with an oral message: orator sine pace redit regique refert rem, Enn. ap. Varr. L. L. 7, § 41 Müll. (Ann. v. 211 Vahl.): Aetolos pacem velle de eā re oratores Romam profectos, Cato ap. Paul. ex Fest. p. 182 Müll.: oratores populi, summi viri; Ambraciā veniunt huc legati puplice, Plaut. Stich. 3, 2, 35: Veientes pacem petitum oratores Romam mittunt, Liv 1, 15: foederum, pacis, belli, induciarum oratores fetiales judicesve sunto, Cic. Leg. 2, 9, 21: mittor et Iliacas audax orator ad arces, Ov. M. 13, 196: centum oratores augusta ad moenia regis Ire jubet, Verg. A. 7, 153; Cic. Brut. 14, 55.
  3. III. One who prays or supplicates for any thing, an entreater, beseecher, suppliant (Plautin.), Plaut. Poen. 1, 2, 145; so in the twofold signif. of ambassador and beseecher, id. Stich. 3, 2, 39.