(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.
Paradox
Definition:
(n.) A tenet or proposition contrary to received opinion; an assertion or sentiment seemingly contradictory, or opposed to common sense; that which in appearance or terms is absurd, but yet may be true in fact.
Example Sentences:
(1) Paradoxically, each tax holiday increases the need for the next, because companies start holding ever greater amounts of their tax offshore in the expectation that the next Republican government will announce a new one.
(2) This "paradox of redistribution" was certainly observable in Britain, where Welfare retained its status as one of the 20th century's most exalted creations, even while those claiming benefits were treated with ever greater contempt.
(3) Although selenium deficiency in livestock is consequently now rare in Oregon, selenium-deficient soils and attendant selenium deficiency conditions have been reported near the Kesterson Wildlife Refuge in the Northern part of the San Joaquin Valley, California, where, paradoxically, selenium toxicity in wildfowl, nesting near evaporation ponds, occurred and attracted wide attention.
(4) Our findings may hold the key to understanding the apparent paradox that although neuroleptics presumably induce their therapeutic actions in disorders such as Tourette syndrome and schizophrenia as well as their parkinsonian effects by blocking dopamine receptors, this antagonism occurs immediately while behavioral changes often require weeks for maximal development.
(5) Urinary output paradoxically increased during the first day following starvation, but fell dramatically thereafter.
(6) Transient "paradoxical" increase of ST segment elevation followed by rapid falling was observed in 4 patients.
(7) The duration of paradoxical sleep was particularly increased resembling the effects of benzodiazepines.
(8) Comparing measurements of base line and 30 and 60% of Pmmax indicated that the degree of asynchrony, paradox, and variation in compartmental contribution were significantly related to the level of the load; significant abnormalities were observed at even 30% of Pmmax, a target pressure that can be sustained indefinitely.
(9) Nitroprusside, which is the drug of choice for treating this "paradoxical hypertension," was not readily available.
(10) We have attempted to investigate a relationship between the paradoxical GH secretion with the abnormal glucose tolerance test present in some cases of acromegaly.
(11) Allen Mathies, president and chief executive officer at Huntington Memorial Hospital, cited a paradoxical side effect stemming from the success of his hospital's geriatric outreach programs.
(12) Paradoxical bronchoconstriction was not observed when salbutamol was diluted with water.
(13) Similar paradoxes bedevilled all the other chief themes.
(14) But like so many of his colleagues in the Trump administration , Spicer has shown us how unconsciousness and stupidity can, however paradoxically, assume a Machiavellian function – how a flagrant example of gross insensitivity and flat-out odiousness can serve as yet another useful and convenient distraction.
(15) In addition, despite this overall protective effect, zinc paradoxically increased the glutamate-induced destruction of nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate diaphorase (NADPH-d)-containing neurons, a subpopulation that was shown in the preceding paper (Koh and Choi, 1988) to exhibit resistance to NMDA receptor-mediated neurotoxicity, and vulnerability to non-NMDA receptor-mediated neurotoxicity.
(16) Photograph: YouTube Formation is a protest and celebration, concerned with and in love with the very particular paradox of the black American identity and experience.
(17) Paradoxical embolus to the right coronary artery was demonstrated premorbidly and at autopsy.
(18) A sample of physician-referred chronic insomniacs was randomly allocated to either progressive relaxation, stimulus control, paradoxical intention, placebo or no treatment conditions.
(19) There was no difference between paradox and normal hearts in calcium stimulated ATPase activity in the SR.
(20) The apparent paradox in these results is correlated with different effects of the two maneuvers on left atrial pressure.