- an affected style in imitation of that of Lyly, fashionable in England about the end of the 16th century, characterized chiefly by long series of antitheses and frequent similes relating to mythological natural history, and alliteration.
- any similar ornate style of writing or speaking; high-flown, periphrastic language.
- an artificial prose style of the Elizabethan period, marked by extreme use of antithesis, alliteration, and extended similes and allusions
- any stylish affectation in speech or writing, esp a rhetorical device or expression
