periphrase

• “It is to be noted that the age of periphrase in verse was the age of crudities in prose.”

  Les Miserables

• “Morris said: ‘My translation is a real one so far, not a mere periphrase of the original as _all_ the others are.’”

  The Translations of Beowulf A Critical Bibliography

• “It was the beginning of March, and though Du Bartas, 1that classic ancestor of the periphrase, had not yet styled the sun “the Grand Duke of the Candles, ” his rays were none the less bright and cheerful.”

  I. Showing the Danger of Confiding One’s Secret to a Goat. Book VII

• “In these matters a periphrase was demanded by the decorum of life, but, as he asked another question instead, it flashed through him that the doctor must be accustomed to the impatience of a sick man's relatives.”

  Of Human Bondage

• “A writer who aims to be widely read to-day must perpetually halt, must perpetually hesitate at the words that arise in his mind; he must ask himself how many people will stick at this word altogether or miss the meaning it should carry; he must ransack his memory for a commonplace periphrase, an ingenious rearrangement of the familiar; he must omit or overaccentuate at every turn.”

  Mankind in the Making

• “Then, mindful of the presence of the children, she proceeded by means of graceful periphrase and carefully studied generalizations to a presentation of Medora's mental and spiritual attributes.”

  Under the Skylights

• “By some freak of fate she had for parents a plumber and a washerwoman -- "poor but very honest people," was Quentin's periphrase; their poverty of late considerably relieved by the thoughtful son-in-law, and their honesty perhaps fortified at the same time.”

  Our Friend the Charlatan

• “Yes; it was the usual periphrase of these vulgar people.”

  Charlotte's Inheritance

• “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?”

  A Ward of the Golden Gate

• “But her further questioning was met with a frank, amiable, and simple brevity that was as puzzling as the most artful periphrase of tact.”

  By Shore and Sedge

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