Meanings
- archaicpluralplural onlyIndirect or roundabout ways of talking; circumlocution.
Thus from her cell Cumæan Sibyl sings / Ambiguous ambages, the cloyster rings / With the shrill sound thereof, in most dark strains.
1632, Vicar's Virgil, (Please provide the book title or journal name)1 more example
Having thus briefly anatomized the body and soul of man,[…]I may now freely proceed to treat of my intended subject, to most men's capacity; and after many ambages, perspicuously define what this melancholy is[…].
1624, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy: […], 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, →OCLC, page 169 - archaicpluralplural onlyIndirect or roundabout routes or directions.
Paris put fear into him, a city of monstrous size to which London was but a market town. Its ambages of streets bewildered.
1993, Anthony Burgess, A Dead Man In Deptford
Synonyms & antonyms
Origin
- Latinambāges
- Old Frenchambages
- Middle Englishambages
- Englishambages
From Middle English ambages, from Old French ambages (modern French ambages), from Latin ambāges, from ambi- + agere (“to drive”).
More words from Middle English, Old French, Latin
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
ambages. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/ambages
“ambages.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/ambages. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “ambages,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/ambages.
Source: ambages on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.