periphrasis
Example Sentences
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Prince Bumpo, the heir to the throne, is a mooncalf who mistakes fairy tales for real life, speaks in Elizabethan periphrasis and murmurs to himself: “If only I were a white prince!”
From New York Times ● Sep. 9, 2020
This periphrasis so fascinated Charles W. Morton, now the associate editor of the Atlantic, that he began collecting examples of "Elongated Yellow Fruit" writing.
From Time Magazine Archive
Oddly, they all speak the same puckish periphrasis.
From Time Magazine Archive
And with this happy periphrasis, our friend admitted his defeat.
From The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 05, No. 28, February, 1860 by Various
Constant circumlocution produces an affected and heavy style; occasionally, skilful periphrasis conduces both to beauty and to simplicity.
From English Synonyms and Antonyms With Notes on the Correct Use of Prepositions by Fernald, James Champlin
All who have even a slight acquaintance with sagas know the extraordinary periphrases for common objects, for men and maidens, for ships and swords, that bestrew them.
From The Flourishing of Romance and the Rise of Allegory (Periods of European Literature, vol. II) by Saintsbury, George
He has remnants of the old periphrases, the cumbrous mythological allusions, the poetical “properties” of French verse.
From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 11, Slice 2 "French Literature" to "Frost, William" by Various
By reading the English, French, and German columns downwards, the reader will see how many different roots and periphrases these languages employ in order to express the same ideas.
From International Language Past, Present and Future: With Specimens of Esperanto and Grammar by Clark, Walter John
He gradually acquired a reputation as a poet by his epistles, in which things are not called by their ordinary names but are hinted at by elaborate periphrases.
From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 7, Slice 10 "David, St" to "Demidov" by Various
These sagas are not to be so forgotten or disproved as to take away from poetry old periphrases which great skalds have been pleased with.
From The Younger Edda Also called Snorre's Edda, or The Prose Edda by Anderson, Rasmus Björn
Vocabulary lists containing periphrasis
Reading: Literature - Literary Devices & Figures of Speech - High School
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Rhetoric
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Around and Around: Peri
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