Contents -AUTHOR INDEX -BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

Mawson, C.O.S., ed. (1870–1938). Roget’s International Thesaurus. 1922.

Class IV. Words Relating to the Intellectual Faculties
Division (II) Communication of Ideas
Section III. Means of Communicating Ideas
Various Qualities of Style

573. Diffuseness.

   NOUN:DIFFUSENESS &c. adj.; amplification &c. v.; dilating &c. v.; verbosity, wordiness; verbiage, cloud of words, copia verborum [L.]; flow of words (loquacity) [See Loquacity]; looseness.
  TAUTOLOGY, battology, polylogy [obs.], perissology [obs.]; pleonasm, exuberance, redundance; thrice-told tale; prolixity, longiloquence, longsomeness, circumlocution, ambages [rare], periphrase, periphrasis, roundabout phrases; episode; expletive; penny-a-lining; richness [See Ornament]; padding [editor’s cant]; drivel, twaddle, drool.
   VERB:BE DIFFUSE &c. adj.; run out on, descant, expatiate, enlarge, dilate, amplify, expand, inflate, pad [editor’s cant], launch out, branch out; rant.
  MAUNDER, prose; harp upon (repeat) [See Repetition]; dwell on, insist upon.
  DIGRESS, ramble, battre la campagne [F.], beat about the bush, perorate, spin a long yarn, protract; spin -, swell -, draw- out; battologize or battalogize; drivel, twaddle, drool.
   ADJECTIVE:DIFFUSE, profuse; wordy, verbose, largiloquent [obs.], copious, exuberant, pleonastic, lengthy; long, long-some, long-winded, longspun, long drawn out; spun out, protracted, prolix, diffusive, prosing, maundering; circumlocutory, periphrastic, ambagious or ambaguious, ambagitory, roundabout; digressive; discursive, excursive; loose; rambling, episodic; flatulent, frothy.
   ADVERB:DIFFUSELY &c. adj.; at large, in extenso [L.]; about it and about.
   QUOTATION:Thou sayest an undisputed thing In such a solemn way.—Holmes