periphrasis

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.

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

"To make Baldassare laugh" became a stock periphrasis for the supreme degree of tragedy among his neighbours.

From Little Novels of Italy by Hewlett, Maurice Henry

But in Puritan America there is an additional problem, which I can hardly explain without a periphrasis.

From What I Saw in America by Chesterton, G. K. (Gilbert Keith)