Of speech, language, etc.: carefully or ingeniously elaborated; highly elegant or refined; clever, smart; (in later use also) affected. Obsolete.

Of language, speech, or writing: affectedly or excessively elaborate; ornate, florid.

Of language, style, etc.: suitable for a romance; esp. overblown, euphuistic, flowery. Now rare.

Aiming at or affecting refinement in manners, language, etc.; fastidious, particular. Now usually depreciative: over-delicate, over-fastidious…

Over-refined; affectedly fastidious in taste and language. Cf. precious, adj. 3.

figurative. Not direct or straightforward; indirect, irregular, devious, circuitous, crooked: esp. in a moral sense. (In quot. 1801 apparently…

= main sense.

Tending to or resembling euphuism; of the nature of euphuism; characterized by euphuism. Chiefly in inaccurate sense: Abounding in ‘highflown’ or…

= precious, adj. 3. Cf. précieuse, adj.