|1.||an artificial prose style of the Elizabethan period, marked
by extreme use of antithesis, alliteration, and extended similes
and allusions| |2.||any stylish affectation in speech or
writing, esp a rhetorical device or expression| |[C16: after
Euphues, prose romance by John Lyly]| |an arrangement of five
objects, as trees, in a square or rectangle, one at each corner
and one in the middle.| |an extraordinary or unusual thing,
person, or event; an exceptional example or instance.| an
elegant Elizabethan literary style marked by excessive use of
balance, antithesis, and alliteration and by frequent use of
similes drawn from mythology and nature. The word is also used
to denote artificial elegance. It was derived from the name of a
character in the prose romances Euphues: The Anatomy of Wit
(1578) and Euphues and his England (1580) by the English author
John Lyly. Although the style soon fell out of fashion, it
played an important role in the development of English prose. It
appeared at a time of experimenta