euphuism
Americannoun
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an affected style in imitation of that of Lyly, fashionable in England about the end of the 16th century, characterized chiefly by long series of antitheses and frequent similes relating to mythological natural history, and alliteration.
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any similar ornate style of writing or speaking; high-flown, periphrastic language.
noun
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an artificial prose style of the Elizabethan period, marked by extreme use of antithesis, alliteration, and extended similes and allusions
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any stylish affectation in speech or writing, esp a rhetorical device or expression
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of euphuism
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
"We're losing the war," he insists, adding with a flourish of Romneyesque euphuism: "The Viet Nam tail is wagging our global dog."
From Time Magazine Archive
Above all, none of the grandiosity and architectural euphuism of the American "signature" museum.
From Time Magazine Archive
Equally unsatisfactory is the theory that euphuism was of purely Spanish origin.
From John Lyly by Wilson, John Dover
The work of the instructor, abhorred by most men, and especially by sensitive men, was to him literally the "delightful task" of the poet who has endured many a jibe for so monstrous a euphuism.
From A Letter on Shakspere's Authorship of The Two Noble Kinsmen and on the characteristics of Shakspere's style and the secret of his supremacy by Spalding, William
Dr. Blecker used no delicate euphuism in talking of women, which, maybe, was as well.
From The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 11, No. 68, June, 1863 by Various
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
