Dictionary.net

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.

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.

The use of a mild or pleasing expression in place of one that is plainer or more accurate but which might be offensive or embarrassing; the expression so used.

In rhet. a figure in which a delicate word or expression is substituted for one which is offensive to good manners or to delicate ears: when it is said of the martyr St. Stephen, that "he fell asleep," instead of he died, the euphemism partakes of the nature of a metaphor, intimating a resemblance between sleep and the death of such a person: this instinct of politeness in speech-euphemism, as it is called-which seeks to hint at an unpleasant or an indelicate thing, rather than name it directly, has had much to do in making words acquire new meanings and lose old ones; thus "plain" has usurped the sense of "ugly;" "fast," of "dissipated;" "gallantry," of "licentiousness.".

A mild or pleasing expression for something unpleasant.

Euphemistic.

Euphemistic.

A mild expression for something disagreeable.

The substitution of a delicate or indirect expression in order to avoid something offensive to good manners, or indelicate; a mild name for something offensive.

n. [Greek] A delicate word or expression used for one that is harsh or indelicate.