PERIPHRASTIC - 7 definitions found
periphrastic adj 1: roundabout and unnecessarily wordy; "had a preference for circumlocutious (or circumlocutory) rather than forthright expression"; "A periphrastic study in a worn- out poetical fashion,/ Leaving one still with the intolerable wrestle/ With words and meanings."-T.S.Eliot; (`ambagious' is archaic) [syn: circumlocutious, circumlocutory, periphrastic, ambagious] Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, 11th Edition (2003) periphrastic adjective Date: 1805 1. of, relating to, or characterized by periphrasis 2. formed by the use of function words or auxiliaries instead of by inflection <more fair is a periphrastic comparative> • periphrastically adverb Oxford English Reference Dictionary
English Explanatory Dictionary periphrastic ˌperɪˈfræstɪk adj. Gram. 1 of or involving periphrasis. 2 (of a case, tense, etc.) formed by combination of words rather than by inflection (e.g. did go, of the people rather than went, the people' s). øøperiphrastically adv. [Gk periphrastikos (as PERIPHRASIS)] Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) Periphrastic \Per`i*phras"tic\, Periphrastical \Per`i*phras"tic*al\, a. [Gr. ?: cf. F. p['e]riphrastique.] Expressing, or expressed, in more words than are necessary; characterized by periphrase; circumlocutory. Periphrastic conjugation (Gram.), a conjugation formed by the use of the simple verb with one or more auxiliaries. Soule\'s Dictionary of English Synonyms periphrastic a. ; (also periphrastical) Circumlocutory, roundabout, indirect, going round. |
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