a roundabout way of expressing something; circumlocution
2.
an expression of this kind
Word origin
C16: via Latin from Greek, from peri- + phrazein to declare
Examples of 'periphrases' in a sentence
periphrases
Two structure types were identified: infinitival periphrases and compound tenses.
Aroldo Leal de Andrade , Zenaide de Oliveira Novais Carneiro 2014, 'Clitic position and clitic placement in complex predicates: Brazilian Portuguese viewedfrom two trends', Filologia e Linguística Portuguesahttp://www.revistas.usp.br/flp/article/view/88407. Retrieved from DOAJ CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/legalcode)
These periphrases have been associated with several negated constructions.
Raquel González Rodríguez 2015, 'Negation of resultative and progressive periphrases', Borealis: An International Journal of Hispanic Linguisticshttps://septentrio.uit.no/index.php/borealis/article/view/3317. Retrieved from DOAJ CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/legalcode)
They usually choose long periphrases to summon the addressees, thus recalling their family history and their ancestors.
Sophie Roesch 2010, 'Interpellation et enjeux de pouvoir dans les comédies et tragédies latines', Corelahttp://journals.openedition.org/corela/1632. Retrieved from DOAJ CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/legalcode)