(n.) A figure in which a harts or indelicate word or expression is softened; a way of describing an offensive thing by an inoffensive expression; a mild name for something disagreeable.
Example Sentences:
(1) 9.41pm BST Dodgers 0 - Cardinals 0, bottom of the 2nd The "demeaning euphemism for overweight" Matt Adams lines out to Adrian Gonzalez for the second out of the inning.
(2) General Bantz Craddock, who instituted the restraint chair and twice-daily intubation in 2006 , said that he designed it to make hunger-striking less " convenient " – a not terribly subtle euphemism for more painful – and that "pretty soon [after these practices were introduced]…they decided it wasn’t worth it."
(3) To avoid discussing the hunger strike and its rationale, they introduced a euphemism when asked about it: “long-term non-religious fasting”.
(4) I liked working there in the "people department" (a new euphemism for the women's section in the age of feminism), since it offered handy distractions from the horror of the blank page.
(5) Craving boldness is too often a euphemism for wishing Labour's predicament were something other than what it is; that there was a way to promise immediate improvement in everyone's lives without giving them money.
(6) She's both a "certain type of woman" (divorced single mothers must only be referred to in euphemism) and an object of desire.
(7) On Tuesday Khamenei used the expression "heroic leniency", which is being interpreted as a euphemism for a softer stance on foreign policy.
(8) And they gave us the word “euphemism” in the first place – “to use a favourable word in place of an inauspicious one”.
(9) In fact, the word 'torture' does not appear anywhere, nor even the preferred diplomatic euphemism, 'ill-treatment'.
(10) There were euphemisms (“an incident”, “an inappropriate action on my part”); there were vague and reassuring references to the woman (“she has accepted my apology”); and there were mind-your-own-business obfuscations (“a deeply personal business”).
(11) Political rhetoric now as in Orwell's day exploits not only euphemism ("austerity") but dysphemism ("skivers") and loaded metaphor ("fiscal cliff"): in our time, weaponised soundbites are deliberately engineered to smuggle the greatest amount of persuasion into the smallest space, to be virally replicated on rolling news.
(12) There is a serious risk that, sooner rather than later, “self-employment” will simply be a euphemism for regular work in which the employee is unprotected by minimum-wage legislation or any other workplace entitlements.
(13) The NSC will also be put in charge of a £1.3bn prosperity fund that will focus on issues like “improving the business climate” – a term too often used as a euphemism for the promotion of ideologically-driven policies like the privatisation of public services .
(14) Labelling Matters , a campaign set up by Compassion in World Farming and the RSPCA among others, is calling for labels that discard euphemisms in favour, for instance, of “intensive indoor” for pork from pigs that never go outside and “permanently housed” for dairy cows that never graze in fields.
(15) According to state media, Ji Jianye is being investigated for "severe violations of discipline and law" – a euphemism for embezzlement, bribery and other official abuses.
(16) But what this kind of legislation would do is promote “information-sharing” – a euphemism for cutting a giant hole in our privacy laws that allow companies like Sony or 20th Century Fox (or Google or Facebook) to hand over all sorts of our personal information to the government with no legal process whatsoever.
(17) Work was a widely used euphemism for killing during the genocide.
(18) "Dressing for pleasure" and "fun fashion" get a bad rap, especially for women in their middle age, as it is generally assumed that this is a euphemism for women dressing like clowns and not realising that, at their age (huff, huff), they should be wearing beige cashmere.
(19) Records of military and congressional investigations into the 1864 Sand Creek Massacre illustrate that "scalping" and other terms were euphemisms for Colorado Volunteers mutilating Cheyenne people and wearing and displaying genitalia, fetuses, and other "battle trophies".
(20) Apart from using the words "organic" as a euphemism for "traditional", his ideas seem to have matured little in the 25 years.
Expletive
Definition:
(a.) Filling up; hence, added merely for the purpose of filling up; superfluous.
(n.) A word, letter, or syllable not necessary to the sense, but inserted to fill a vacancy; an oath.
Example Sentences:
(1) A few years back, a survey of 3,000 11-year-olds revealed that nine out of 10 parents swear in front of their children, and the average kid heard six different expletives per week (whoever said profanity was bad for your vocabulary?).
(2) Tories warned last night of a plot to destabilise one of David Cameron's most trusted advisers, after details of an expletive-fuelled row with train staff which led to an £80 fine for Steve Hilton, the strategy director, were leaked to Channel 4 News.
(3) This from the Wall Street Journal : As they lined up for a team photo at Incheon, Seoul’s main international airport, the players were showered with “yeot,” a traditional candy that is also a common synonym for a Korean expletive.
(4) But you saw the spirit in the team tonight, we kept fighting to the end.” For Leicester it was another chastening evening and one that ended with Nigel Pearson embroiled in an ugly row, in which expletives were exchanged, with a fan.
(5) On Thursday the FA disclosed the full extent of Ince's actions as it revealed he physically assaulted the fourth official Mark Pottage while using a series of expletives.
(6) The players have said to me: ‘We don’t want any Bertie Big,’” Walsh said, leaving out the expletive.
(7) One person told Starmer the decision not to prosecute was a "fucking disgrace", sources said, and other expletives were used.
(8) F1: Max Verstappen calls Toro Rosso strategy a ‘joke’ in expletive-laden tirade Read more “The team is in good shape, we know we can up our game and put pressure on these guys.
(9) One of Rajaratnam's co-accused, fund manager Danielle Chiesi, tells the government's informant on one call that "you put me in jail if you talk", adding that she will be like "Martha [expletive] Stewart".
(10) Meanwhile in the American League... Steve Busfield (@Busfield) Benches clear in Detroit as Martinez and Balfour fling expletives but no punches thrown.
(11) It was clear that McGregor’s barbs were getting at Diaz, who grew increasingly flustered and struggled to muster replies that went beyond a barrage of expletives.
(12) And there will still be a mixture of homegrown material and features glommed from Wired's American edition, alongside an eclectic slate of contributors that includes the distinguished (Oxford neuroscientist Susan Greenfield) and the rabble-rousing (Warren Ellis, the expletive-addicted comic book writer).
(13) Whereas an American, for example, has a little blow-hole on the top of their head from which they can release their irritation in an expletive-laced explosion, a Briton has no such release.
(14) Players that he knows to express one view in private, usually strident and expletive-laden, switch to bland when the camera rolls.
(15) A former UK cabinet minister has said he regrets losing his temper, after being recorded launching an expletive-ridden tirade at a London taxi driver following a visit to Buckingham Palace with his partner, who had just been awarded a CBE.
(16) Jeremy Corbyn’s Twitter account appeared to have been hijacked on Sunday night when a series of expletive-laden tweets were posted.
(17) The London mayor, Boris Johnson, has marked the last week of election campaigning with an expletive-laden tirade, accusing a senior BBC journalist of talking "fucking bollocks" on a lunchtime TV bulletin.
(18) Meryl Streep won for dramatic actress as Margaret Thatcher in The Iron Lady, her eighth win at the Globes – and surpised the audience with a string of expletives in her acceptance speech when she fumbled for her spectacles.
(19) Sometimes, his movement was not sharp enough and the expletives flowed in his direction and on other occasions, his touch or decision-making was not up to scratch.
(20) Instead, Cissé was left unattended to glance into the corner and you could almost hear the offers coming in for McClaren, who had given his players an expletive-filled rebuke after last week’s insipid defeat to Leicester , to pen a study on man-management.