euphuize

English

Verb

euphuize (third-person singular simple present euphuizes, present participle euphuizing, simple past and past participle euphuized)

1. To affect excessive refinement in language; to be overnice in expression.
   • 1894, Sir Walter Alexander Raleigh, The English Novel: Being a Short Sketch from the Earliest Times to the Appearance of Waverly:

     It is this artificial character of the style, as much as anything, that has led the critics into a unanimity of scorn, and made them declare (to euphuize the burden of their observations) that they would sooner be content to forego the author's wisdom than constrained to undergo his wit […]

Related terms

• euphuism
• euphuistic

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for “euphuize”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.)