Do You Use This Speaker's Trick?

You may have learned this speaker's "trick" in school: "Webster's Dictionary defines ________ as...." It's supposed to give you extra credibility, educate your audience, and get their attention.

My opinion: this trick isn't effective on audiences, and is overused.

It's good to define words. Just don't reference Webster's Dictionary. Instead ask people in the group to give you a definition of a the word, or give you related words (even antonyms) -- that engages people. You follow-up their answers with any additional insights, and steer the conversation where you want to go.