attitudinize

• attitudinise

From Italian attitudine +‎ -ize.

• IPA^(key): /ˌætɪˈtjuːdɪnaɪz/, /ˌætɪˈtuːdɪnaɪz/

  • Audio (UK)

    (file)

attitudinize (third-person singular simple present attitudinizes, present participle attitudinizing, simple past and past participle attitudinized)

1. (intransitive) To assume an affected, unnatural exaggerated attitude or pose.
   • 1809, Hannah More, Cœlebs in Search of a Wife, The Works of Hannah More, London: T. Cadell, 1830, Volume VII, Chapter 9, p. 73,

     Charlotte, who has the best voice, was brought out to sing, but was placed a little behind, as her person is not quite perfect; Maria, who is the most picturesque figure, was put to attitudinise at the harp […]

   • 1842, [anonymous collaborator of Letitia Elizabeth Landon], chapter XLI, in Lady Anne Granard; or, Keeping up Appearances. […], volume II, London: Henry Colburn, […], OCLC 1000392275, page 223:

     His assistant clerk played well into his hands, and his assistant lady attetudenized with immense effect, playing comic muse, or tragic, as the case admitted.

   • 1880, Mark Twain, A Tramp Abroad, Hartford: American Publishing Company, Chapter 19, p. 183,

     I was the only one of our party who saw this grand sight; the others were attitudinizing, for the benefit of the long rank of young ladies who were promenading on the bank, and so they lost it.

   • 1953, Raymond Chandler, The Long Goodbye, New York: Ballantine, 1971, Chapter 14, p. 87,

     “That mean anything to you, Mrs Wade?”

     “Just attitudinizing. He has always been a great admirer of Scott Fitzgerald.”

2. (transitive) To cause to assume a pose.
   • 1951, Hortense Calisher, “In Greenwich There Are Many Gravelled Walks” in Mid-Century: An Anthology of Distinguished Contemporary American Short Stories, New York: Washington Square Press, 1958, p. 181,

     In Greenwich, there were many gravelled walks, unshrubbed except for the nurses who dotted them, silent and attitudinized as trees.

3. (transitive) To give the appearance of, make a show of by posing.
   • 1901, Joseph Conrad and Ford Madox Ford, The Inheritors, London: Heinemann, Chapter Eleven, p. 178,

     Radet was a cadaverous, weather-worn, passion-worn individual, badger-grey, and worked up into a grotesquely attitudinised fury of injured self-esteem

   • 1924, Gilbert Frankau, Gerald Cranston’s Lady, Toronto: F.D. Goodchild, Chapter 5,

     While she, one hand on his arm, had been attitudinizing her dutiful gratitude, he—as she suddenly realized—had been deciding to rid her of Fordham.

• posturize