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euphemism

   Also found in: Dictionary/thesaurus 0.09 sec.

euphemism

Figure of speech that substitutes a direct or offensive statement with one that is suitably mild or evasive.

Thus, ‘he passed away’ is used in place of ‘he died’; ‘sleep with someone’ substitutes for ‘have sex with someone’; and ‘liquidate the opposition’ has a softer impact than ‘kill one's enemies’.



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? Mentioned in ? References in classic literature
 
The in ability to say this, and the resentment which results therefrom, he regards as the source of all our feelings of revenge, and all our desires to punish--punishment meaning to him merely a euphemism for the word revenge, invented in order to still our consciences.
Then beauty of style and harmony and grace and good rhythm depend on simplicity,--I mean the true simplicity of a rightly and nobly ordered mind and character, not that other simplicity which is only an euphemism for folly?
It was something of a euphemism to call him a well-known man about town.
 
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