ALLUDE

Pronunciation (US):

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does allude mean? 

• ALLUDE (verb)
  The verb ALLUDE has 1 sense:

1. make a more or less disguised reference to

  Familiarity information: ALLUDE used as a verb is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• ALLUDE (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they allude    ... he / she / it alludes   
Past simple: alluded   
Past participle: alluded   
-ing form: alluding   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Make a more or less disguised reference to

Classified under:

Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing

Synonyms:

advert; allude; touch

Context example:

He alluded to the problem but did not mention it

Hypernyms (to "allude" is one way to...):

hint; suggest (drop a hint; intimate by a hint)

"Allude" entails doing...:

denote; refer (have as a meaning)

Verb group:

bear on; come to; concern; have to do with; pertain; refer; relate; touch; touch on (be relevant to)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s PP

Derivation:

allusion (passing reference or indirect mention)

allusive (characterized by indirect references)

 Context examples 

He feelingly alluded to the young lady, unknown, whom Traddles had honoured with his affection, and who had reciprocated that affection by honouring and blessing Traddles with her affection.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

"You'd better take the little umbrella, dear. It looks like rain," said her mother, observing that she had on her new bonnet, but not alluding to the fact.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

You allude, perhaps, to the entail of this estate.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

I alluded merely to the trend of modern thought and the general scientific point of view, if I might so express it.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Long since you ought to have crushed it: now you should blush to allude to it.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

I trembled excessively; I could not endure to think of, and far less to allude to, the occurrences of the preceding night.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

He spoke with fire and conviction, mincing no words in his attack upon the slaves and their morality and tactics and frankly alluding to his hearers as the slaves in question.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

Dinner was over, and the table cleared before Holmes alluded to the matter again.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

You allude to my attempt to recover the Irene Adler papers, to the singular case of Miss Mary Sutherland, and to the adventure of the man with the twisted lip.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

But Mr. Woodhouse—how was Mr. Woodhouse to be induced to consent? —he, who had never yet alluded to their marriage but as a distant event.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)