allusive, a.
(əˈl(j)uːsɪv)
[f. L. allūs- ppl. stem of allūd-ĕre to allude + -ive, as if ad. L. *allūsīvus.]
† 1. Playing upon a word, punning. Obs.
| 1656 Fuller Hist. Camb. (1840) 174 Dr. Thomas Nevyle..practising his own allusive motto, Ne vile velis. |
b. Her. Allusive Arms, called also canting or punning arms: those in which the charges suggest or play upon the bearer's name or title, as the martlets (OFr. arondel young swallow) borne by the Duke of Arundel.
2. Symbolical, metaphorical, figurative. arch.
| 1605 Bacon Adv. Learn. ii. 18 The diuision of Poesie..is into Poesie Narrative, Representative, and Allusive. 1635 R. Brathwait Arcad. Princ. ii. 149 The allusive meaning of these emblemes. 1672 Jacomb Comm. Rom. viii. (1868) 205 No better than an..allusive, metaphorical son of God. 1780 Boswell Johnson (1847) 663/1 Johnson..professed that he could bring him out into conversation, and used this allusive expression, ‘Sir, I can make him rear.’ 1850 J. Leitch tr. Müller's Anc. Art §128. 102 It represents [it]..in the allusive manner of antiquity. |
3. Containing an allusion; having or abounding in indirect references.
| 1607 Topsell Four-footed Beasts (1673) 341 According to the allusive saying of the Mantuan. c 1630 Jackson Creed vi. xv. Wks. VII. 109 No concludent proof, but allusive only. 1662 Evelyn Chalcogr. (1769) 18 More allusive yet to our plate. 1864 Spect. No. 1875. 6 Modern ephemeral writing, being essentially allusive from the necessity of condensation, is crowded with allusions to historical facts. 1875 Fortnum Majolica xv. 172 The inscription..allusive, in all probability, to the reconciliation of the rival houses. |