a. [f. prec. + -IC.] Tending to or resembling euphuism; of the nature of euphuism; characterized by euphuism. Chiefly in inaccurate sense: Abounding in ‘high-flown’ or affectedly refined expression.
1828. Carlyle, Goethe’s Helena, Misc. Ess. (1888), I. 157. If indeed it is not a little euphuistic.
1842. Lytton, Zanoni, 21. Ears grown nice and euphuistic in the … dulcet melodies of the day.
1863. Cowden Clarke, Shaks. Char., xvii. 448. He was intended to be a satire upon some euphuistic and bombastious characters … found in other plays of his time.
1871. R. F. Weymouth, Euph., 3. The most important element by far in the euphuistic style is antithesis.
1876. E. A. Abbott, Bacon, in Contemp. Rev., June, 154. The … antithetical euphuistic prose of Essex.
So Euphuistical a. = prec. Euphuistically adv.
1823. Blackw. Mag., XIV. 521. Making an agreeable and euphuistical alliteration.
1856. R. A. Vaughan, Mystics (ed. 4), II. 6. One [a poem] most euphuistically entitled The Cherubic Wanderer.
1874. Motley, Barneveld, II. xxi. 391. The Advocate had, as it was euphuistically expressed, been looking towards the enemy.
