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Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
allusion
noun
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADJECTIVE
classical
▪ He probably intended it as an exact classical allusion.
▪ The thing about Mr Healey's delightful book is not only the bloody poetry but the classical allusions.
literary
▪ A little literary allusion, for another.
■ VERB
make
▪ Paige looked round, unsure if he was making some allusion to her or not.
▪ It does not mention the sacrifice of Iphigenia, and makes only a dubious allusion to the Judgment of Paris.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ In various other places and strands of the New Testament we find similar unselfconscious allusions to the three persons in the deity.
▪ Like the cabalistic use of hints and allusions, it achieves results seemingly out of proportion to the measures employed.
▪ Many pages of the New Testament contain quotations or allusions to the Old Testament.
▪ Paige looked round, unsure if he was making some allusion to her or not.
▪ The allusion to clouds is anything but fortuitous, emphasizing as it does the link between the sound of drums and thunder.
▪ The play abounds in biblical and religious allusions, typical of Romantic works, and also prevalent in the comedia lacrimosa.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Allusion

Allusion \Al*lu"sion\, n. [L. allusio, fr. alludere to allude: cf. F. allusion.]

  1. A figurative or symbolical reference. [Obs.]

  2. A reference to something supposed to be known, but not explicitly mentioned; a covert indication; indirect reference; a hint.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
allusion

1540s, from Latin allusionem (nominative allusio) "a playing with, a reference to," noun of action from past participle stem of alludere (see allude). An allusion is never an outright or explicit mention of the person or thing the speaker seems to have in mind.

Wiktionary
allusion

n. An indirect reference; a hint; a reference to something supposed to be known, but not explicitly mentioned; a covert indication.

WordNet
allusion

n. passing reference or indirect mention

Wikipedia
Allusion

Allusion is a figure of speech, in which one refers covertly or indirectly to an object or circumstance from an external context. It is left to the audience to make the connection; where the connection is directly and explicitly stated (as opposed to indirectly implied) by the author, an allusion is instead usually termed a reference. In the arts, a literary allusion puts the alluded text in a new context under which it assumes new meanings and denotations. It is not possible to predetermine the nature of all the new meanings and inter-textual patterns that an allusion will generate. Literary allusion is closely related to parody and pastiche, which are also "text-linking" literary devices.

In a wider, more informal context, an allusion is a passing or casually short statement indicating broader meaning. It is an incidental mention of something, either directly or by implication, such as "In the stock market he met his Waterloo."

Usage examples of "allusion".

Frequent allusion is made to the excitement at present existing in our national politics, and it is as well that I should also allude to it here.

On the local level resistance may appear as an external allusion or an internal cross-reference that we cannot trace.

The thrill of finding an allusion, of locating the precise source of a teasing echo, of suddenly catching an obscure pun or seeing what should have been an obvious joke makes the reader alert, curious, eager to find new puzzles to solve.

Lucile is thought to have committed suicide, and will note that the first Chateaubriand allusion in the novel refers only to Lucette, and that every subsequent allusion also involves Lucette or prefigures her death.

Or it could be seen as a study of the ironies of originality, a novel that asserts its own originality the moment its first line copies another, and then evokes the breathless, unprecedented newness of falling in love - in a world already dense with allusion and echo, a decadent endgame Eden.

Lake Kitezh: allusion to the legendary town of Kitezh which shines at the bottom of a lake in a Russian fairy tale.

Although the Pathfinder did not dare to look at Mabel while he made this direct allusion to his change of life, he would have given the world to know whether she was listening, and what was the expression of her countenance.

The last of these battles was then a recent event, it having actually been fought within the recollection of our heroine, whose notions of it, however, were so confused that she scarcely appreciated the effect her allusion might produce on her companion.

Winterbones, when the above ill-natured allusion was made to the aroma coming from his libations, might be seen to deposit surreptitiously beneath the little table at which he sat, the cup with which he had performed them.

Frank, nor did he make any allusion to the business which had taken him up to town.

A sense of loyalty to Mona was not needed to enforce this discretion, and after that first allusion to her she never sounded her name.

Fleda knew what it was an allusion to, and his pathetic air of having received a little slap in the face, tall and fine and kind as he stood there, made her conscious of not quite concealing her knowledge.

His amiable manners and generous heart had endeared him to all, and in a short time his delicate feelings were respected, and the slightest allusion to ambiguity of birth cautiously avoided by all his associates, who, whatever might be their suspicions, thought his brilliant qualifications more than compensated for any want of ancestral distinction.

In page 216 of this work, allusion will be found by name to some of the brilliant wits who graced this festive board, and gave a lustre to the feast.

Hall, the lady mother of the infant, a jolly dame, who happened to be engaged in the shell fish line, took the allusion immediately to herself, and commenced such a furious attack upon the alderman as proved her having been regularly matriculated at the college in Thames Street.