periphrastic s roundabout and unnecessarily wordy; (`ambagious' is archaic) A periphrastic study in a worn-out poetical fashion,/ Leaving one still with the intolerable wrestle/ With words and meanings."-T.S.Eliot Usage(s) He misrepresents, distorts, bisects sentences and employs periphrastic phrases to make his points. Synonym(s) circumlocutious circumlocutory ambagious