circumlocutory

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.

“You know,” I thought to myself during one of the many circumlocutory and not-particularly-funny sequences in Life After Beth, “this is probably some sort of metaphor about the universal desire to retain one’s youth.”

From The Guardian • Aug. 14, 2014

Isn't it astonishing, for example, how, once elected, MPs continue the daft traditions of jeering, guffawing and addressing their colleagues by ridiculous circumlocutory terms such as "the right honourable member"?

From The Guardian • Jul. 10, 2013

The German language, famed for its sprawling compound nouns, has lost its most circumlocutory term.

From BBC • Jun. 4, 2013

Laughter rippled down the banquet table at a government guesthouse in Lenin Hills on the outskirts of Moscow last week following Gromyko's circumlocutory sally.

From Time Magazine Archive

Allusions were made to it in a circumlocutory style: "The place you know—a certain street—at the bottom of the Bridges."

From Sentimental Education, Volume II The History of a Young Man by Flaubert, Gustave