alembicated

English

Etymology

From alembic +‎ -ated.

Adjective

alembicated (comparative more alembicated, superlative most alembicated)

  1. Over-refined; (of ideas, expressions etc.) excessively stylised.
    • 1896, Henry James, Glasses:
      I wanted him to give her up and luminously informed him why; on which he never protested nor contradicted, never was even so alembicated as to declare just for the sake of the drama that he wouldn't. He simply and undramatically didn't....
    • 1978, Lawrence Durrell, Livia (Avignon Quintet), Faber & Faber, published 1992, page 321:
      Blanford could hear his creation tearing open a bag of potato chips and starting to champ them as he reflected furiously upon these all too alembicated ideas.
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