The Collaborative International Dictionary
Circumlocutory \Cir`cum*loc"u*to*ry\, a.
Characterised by circumlocution; periphrastic.
--Shenstone.
The officials set to work in regular circumlocutory
order.
--Chambers's
Journal.
Wiktionary
a. Characterised by circumlocution; periphrastic; verbose.
WordNet
adj. 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, periphrastic, ambagious]
Usage examples of "circumlocutory".
I was silent an instant, thinking how to find words passably comprehensible and yet conventionally circumlocutory and euphemistic.
Ayradyss replied, aware that the caoineag must have her reasons for arriving at her point in such a circumlocutory manner.
The language is subtle and loosely regulated, with its circumlocutory word orders, its vague declensions, its doubled conjugations, both synthetic and periphrastic, with its old "story" forms mixed with formal verb patterns.
Eyes's language skills remained poor, and Mother had to listen to a lot of her circumlocutory pidgin before she understood what had happened.
The astronomer seemed pleased with the proposal, and at once commenced a verbose and somewhat circumlocutory address, of which the following summary presents the main features.