PROLIX • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Prolix

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adjective

Prolix adj.

Extending to a great length; unnecessarily long; minute in narration or argument; excessively particular in detail; rarely used except with reference to discourse written or spoken; as, a prolix oration; a prolix poem; a prolix sermon. "With wig prolix, down flowing to his waist."

Indulging in protracted discourse; tedious; wearisome; applied to a speaker or writer.

Synonyms: Long; diffuse; prolonged; protracted; tedious; tiresome; wearisome. Prolix, Diffuse. A prolix writer delights in circumlocution, extended detail, and trifling particulars. A diffuse writer is fond of amplifying, and abounds in epithets, figures, and illustrations. Diffuseness often arises from an exuberance of imagination; prolixity is generally connected with a want of it.

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Etymology of 'Prolix'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Prolix" Quotes from Famous Books

... upon current notions; and was constantly being warned that if he should publish such or such a work he would surely be prosecuted. Numerous books were therefore not published until many years after they were written. His literary style became so prolix and unintelligible that his disciples—Dumont, Mill, and others—came to his rescue, and disentangled and prepared for the press his innumerable pamphlets, full of suggestiveness and teeming with projects of reform more or less completely realized since. His publications ...

— Library Of The World's Best Literature, Ancient And Modern, Vol 4 • Charles Dudley Warner

... make to them, to take the trouble of forwarding these to my publisher, who will give me notice of them, that I may endeavor to subjoin at the same time my reply; and in this way readers seeing both at once will more easily determine where the truth lies; for I do not engage in any case to make prolix replies, but only with perfect frankness to avow my errors if I am convinced of them, or if I cannot perceive them, simply to state what I think is required for defense of the matters I have written, adding thereto no ...

— A Discourse on Method • Rene Descartes

... features of the monkey can be changed into the noble countenance of man: "Scinditur vulgus." One might argue at considerable length on this novel subject; and perhaps, after all, produce little more than prolix pedantry: "Vox et ...

— Wanderings In South America • Charles Waterton

... only one way out of this difficulty. The main incidents of the Epic are narrated in the original work in passages which are neither diffuse nor unduly prolix, and which are interspersed in the leading narrative of the Epic, at that narrative itself is interspersed in the midst of more lengthy episodes. The more carefully I examined the arrangement, the more clearly it appeared ...

— Maha-bharata - The Epic of Ancient India Condensed into English Verse • Anonymous

... Unsatisfied with herself and with the influences surrounding her, she sought in Briconnet a spiritual adviser and guide. The prelate, in the abstruse and almost unintelligible language of exaggerated mysticism, endeavored to fulfil the trust. His prolix correspondence still exists in manuscript in the National Library of Paris, together with the replies of his royal penitent. Its incomprehensibility may perhaps forever preclude the publication of ...

— The Rise of the Hugenots, Vol. 1 (of 2) • Henry Martyn Baird

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