▪ I. periphrase, n.
(ˈpɛrɪfreɪz)
[a. F. périphrase (1555 in Hatz.-Darm.), ad. L. periphrasis: see periphrasis.]
= periphrasis.
| 1589 Puttenham Eng. Poesie iii. vii. (Arb.) 166 Speaking..by periphrase or circumlocution when all might be said in a word or two. 1674 Boyle Excell. Theol. i. iii. 85 The same infallible Teacher..imploys the vision of God as an emphatical periphrase of felicity. 1727 Pope, etc. Art of Sinking 88 Periphrase is another great aid to prolixity. 1866 Geo. Eliot F. Holt ii, Mr. Jermyn had a copious supply of words, which often led him into periphrase. |
▪ II. periphrase, v.
(ˈpɛrɪfreɪz)
[a. F. périphrase-r (Cotgr. 1611), f. périphrase periphrasis.]
1. trans. To express by periphrasis.
| 1624 Quarles Job Pref., I commend to thee heere the Historie of Job, in part, Periphrased; in part, Abridged. 1814 W. Taylor in Monthly Rev. LXXIII. 475 Delille thus paraphrases and periphrases the passage. |
2. intr. To use circumlocution; to speak or write periphrastically.
| 1652 Gataker Antinom. 34 It would be over teadious..to be continually paraphrasing or periphrasing of them. 1828 Webster, Periphrase, v. i. to use circumlocution. |