Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The quality of being allusive.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun The quality of being allusive.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun The quality of being allusive.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a quality characterized by indirect reference

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

allusive +‎ -ness

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Examples

  • The heavy-handed allusiveness may just be an aesthetic mistake, a secondary flaw we have to countenance while otherwise acknowledging the narrative power of the novel as a whole.

    Translated Texts 2010

  • The heavy-handed allusiveness may just be an aesthetic mistake, a secondary flaw we have to countenance while otherwise acknowledging the narrative power of the novel as a whole.

    December 2009 2009

  • The heavy-handed allusiveness may just be an aesthetic mistake, a secondary flaw we have to countenance while otherwise acknowledging the narrative power of the novel as a whole.

    Furies 2009

  • What tends to happen instead is the kind of coy allusiveness coupled with total transparency of motive you meet, for example, in The Black Star, where our heroes most improbably find a light aircraft in which to escape the overrun city:

    A Great Disturbance in the Plot « Gerry Canavan 2009

  • Any poetry removed from popular diction will inevitably become as esoteric as 18th-century satire (perfected by Alexander Pope), whose dense allusiveness and preciosity drove the early Romantic poets into the countryside to find living speech again.

    Poetry 2010

  • I direct students to the rich allusiveness of his work, his careful craftsmanship, and his often hidden meanings.

    Interview With Professor Jeanne Campbell Reesman 2010

  • The heavy-handed allusiveness may just be an aesthetic mistake, a secondary flaw we have to countenance while otherwise acknowledging the narrative power of the novel as a whole.

    Point of View in Fiction 2009

  • Paglia (correctly) emphasizes the way in which English is constantly changing -- which makes it an ever-renewable source of new kinds of writing -- but she ought to consider this when elevating the Romantic poets '"living speech" over "dense allusiveness and preciosity."

    Poetry 2010

  • Great Regulars: In my experience, pastiche, hyper-allusiveness and associative logic contribute just as much to the texture of everyday communication as they do to making up postmodern literature and "Simpsons" episodes and Mitsubishi commercials.

    Archive 2009-05-01 Rus Bowden 2009

  • There is something about the style of these thinkers, its gaps, its allusiveness, its suggestiveness, and so on that makes it highly fit for cultural circulation.

    Archive 2009-07-01 Tusar N Mohapatra 2009

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