insinuendo

plural insinuendos · plural insinuendoes

1. insinuation containing innuendo

   "I don't have it," says Leon. "It was done away with because of the negative insinuendo."

   1964, Milton Rokeach, The three Christs of Ypsilanti: a psychological study, Knopf, page 131

   3 more examples

   Truly a man may wish, “O that mine enemy would let me write his Preface! Could I not damn with faint praise and stab with sharp insinuendo?” – to use the labor-saving and much-needed word thoughtlessly invented by the sable legislator of South Carolina.

   1888, Brander Matthews, Pen and Ink; Papers on Subjects of More Or Less Importance,, page 57

   It’s sort of an insinuendo, as Matt King says, that your mind could stand a good deal of improving and not hurt it any.

   1918, Eugene Wood, “Missed It - The Big Idea”, in Boys' Life, Boy Scouts of America, Inc., page 30

   The most quoted malamanteau is George W. Bush’s “I misunderestimated”. Others that have evoked smirks have been “miscommunicado” (from “miscommunicate” and “incommunicado”), “insinuendo” (from “innuendo” and “insinuation”), and “squirmish” (“squirm” and “skirmish”).

   2017 December 4, Roslyn Petelin, “The horror and pleasure of misused words: from mispronunciation to malapropisms”, in The Conversation, archived from the original on 12 Nov 2024