v. [f. It. attitudine (see above) + -IZE.]
1. intr. To practise attitudes studiously or excessively; to strike an attitude; to pose, posture.
1784. Johnson, in Boswell (1831), V. 220. He had a great aversion to gesticulating in company. He called once to a gentleman who offended him in that point, ‘Don’t attitudinise.’
1833. Ht. Martineau, Loom & Lugger, II. iv. 74. Sobbing and attitudinizing and looking dolorously.
1837. Dickens, Sk. Boz (1837), II. 103. The elegant Sparkins attitudinized with admirable effect.
2. fig. To practise affected and self-conscious deportment, or to speak or write in a corresponding manner, in order to produce an effect upon spectators.
1864. Fraser’s Mag., April, 404. When Audley Egerton attitudinizes and works out the regulation of an iron exterior and an iron heart.
1879. Froude, Cæsar, xiv. 194. In every line that he wrote Cicero was attitudinising for posterity.
1882. Atl. Monthly, July, 105. Even the leaders of the Southern Confederacy sometimes attitudinized for an awe-stricken world to see.
3. To go to excess in representing attitudes in painting or sculpture.
