ambages

from WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006)

ambages
    n 1: (archaic) roundabout or mysterious ways of action

from The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48

Ambages \Am*ba"ges\, n. pl. [L. (usually in pl.); pref. ambi-,
   amb- + agere to drive: cf. F. ambage.]
   A circuit; a winding. Hence: Circuitous way or proceeding;
   quibble; circumlocution; indirect mode of speech.
   [1913 Webster]

         After many ambages, perspicuously define what this
         melancholy is.                           --Burton.
   [1913 Webster]

from Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0

45 Moby Thesaurus words for "ambages":
      anfractuosity, bypass, circuit, circuitousness, circumambages,
      circumbendibus, circumlocution, circumvolution, convolution,
      crinkle, crinkling, detour, deviation, deviousness, digression,
      excursion, flexuosity, flexuousness, indirection, intorsion,
      involution, meander, meandering, obliqueness, periphrase,
      periphrasis, rivulation, roundabout, roundabout way,
      roundaboutness, sinuation, sinuosity, sinuousness, slinkiness,
      snakiness, torsion, tortility, tortuosity, tortuousness, turning,
      twisting, undulation, wave, waving, winding

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