Ambages

3 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Ambages \Am*ba"ges\, n. pl. [L. (usually in pl.); pref. ambi-,
     amb- + agere to drive: cf. F. ambage.]
     A circuit; a winding. Hence: Circuitous way or proceeding;
     quibble; circumlocution; indirect mode of speech.
     [1913 Webster]
  


           After many ambages, perspicuously define what this
           melancholy is.                           --Burton.
     [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  ambages
       n : (archaic) roundabout or mysterious ways of action

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  45 Moby Thesaurus words for "ambages":
     anfractuosity, bypass, circuit, circuitousness, circumambages,
     circumbendibus, circumlocution, circumvolution, convolution,
     crinkle, crinkling, detour, deviation, deviousness, digression,
     excursion, flexuosity, flexuousness, indirection, intorsion,
     involution, meander, meandering, obliqueness, periphrase,
     periphrasis, rivulation, roundabout, roundabout way,
     roundaboutness, sinuation, sinuosity, sinuousness, slinkiness,
     snakiness, torsion, tortility, tortuosity, tortuousness, turning,
     twisting, undulation, wave, waving, winding