“Allusion A seemingly incidental but often significant reference, as to a writer, event, or figure from literature or mythology; passing or implicit mention. Adj. allusive; adv. Allusively; n. allusiveness; v. allude.
‘I said that to tease Widmerpool, feeling pretty certain he had never read a line of Gogol, though he would rarely if ever admit to failure in recognizing an allusion, literary or otherwise.’ –Anthony Powell, The Soldier’s Art”
Excerpted from: Grambs, David. The Random House Dictionary for Writers and Readers. New York: Random House, 1990.
