euphuisms

These are euphuisms to avoid speaking broadly and openly of that venerable feature, the beard.

First footsteps in East Africa 2003

Mirror for Magistrates, or the fine-spun euphuisms of the

The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon 2002

Philippo was so prone to jealousy, that he suspected even this paragon, and worked himself into a belief in her infidelity by such euphuisms as these: "The greener the Alisander leaves be, the more bitter is the sap, and the salamander is the most warm when he lieth furthest from the fire," therefore "women are most heart-hollow, when they are most lip-holy."

A History of English Prose Fiction Bayard Tuckerman

But it would be the weakest of euphuisms to affect ignorance of the social position which he occupies, and which, not to increase the misery of his position, is indubitably 'at the bottom of the ladder.'

The Continental Monthly, Vol. 1, No. 1, January 1862 Devoted to Literature and National Policy Various

He spoke of trade-unionists always as "those swine and dogs" and of the members of the Government as "those dogs and swine", -- swine and dogs being refined and temperate euphuisms for the epithets Mr. Pike actually employed.

If Winter Comes 1925

I suppose nothing is read now-a-days but Sir Philip Sydney’s Arcadia, Sackville’s stately plays, and Mirror for Magistrates, or the fine-spun euphuisms of the ‘unparalleled John Lyly.

The Mutability of Literature 1914

Hence Bielfeld goes to Hanover, to grin-out euphuisms, and make graceful court-bows to our sublime little Uncle there.

Malaprops. 1908

It meant that he was to die; but they dressed the truth in hopeful euphuisms, and at times, in the joy of preparation, she really forgot the purpose of their journey, and slipped into an eager allusion to next year's plans.

The Greater Inclination Edith Wharton 1899

Nectarius and the silken euphuisms of the corrupt and intriguing priests of

Gathering Clouds: A Tale of the Days of St. Chrysostom 1831-1903 1895

Its euphemisms in reality have no baser intent than the euphuisms of Lyly, Ben Jonson, or Shakespeare.

Unwritten Literature of Hawaii The Sacred Songs of the Hula Nathaniel Bright Emerson 1877