periphrase

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.

The mot propre, the calling of a spade a spade, was the great commandment of Romanticism; but it must be allowed that what was taken away in periphrase was made up in adjectives.

From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 11, Slice 2 "French Literature" to "Frost, William" by Various

Leaving out the delicate and difficult periphrase by which her mother's shame would have to be explained to an innocent school-girl—what right could he have assumed to tell it?

From A Ward of the Golden Gate by Harte, Bret

The sun, which Dubartas, that classic ancestor of periphrase, had not yet dubbed the "Grand-duke of Candles," was none the less radiant and joyous on that account.

From Notre-Dame De Paris by Hapgood, Isabel Florence

So far as consistent with due precision, popular terms have been used in description, but not when such usage involved tedious periphrase.

From Handbook of the Trees of New England by Dame, Lorin Low

Yet it is difficult to conceive why Sallust should have used such a periphrase for centuriones.

From Conspiracy of Catiline and the Jurgurthine War by Watson, John Selby