insinuation

insinuation, innuendo mean covert suggestion or a covert allusion to something.

Insinuation applies chiefly to a remark, comment, or question which conveys or seems to convey a hint or implication, often one that is discreditable to the person at whom it is aimed

{

by tacit agreement they ignored the remarks and insinuations of their acquaintances— D. H. Lawrence

}

{

we reject any insinuation that one race or another, one people or another is in any sense inferior or expendable— Eisenhower

}

Innuendo more often applies to the method of covert suggestion than does insinuation, and when it applies to a definite instance, it is referable to meaningful smiles, glances, inflections, as well as to remarks; in both cases the term definitely implies a suggestion of something that is injurious to the reputation of the person concerned

{

I prefer the most disagreeable certainties to hints and innuendos— Byron

}

{

in this play Middleton shows his interest ... in innuendo and double meanings— T. S. Eliot

}

{

"He—eventually—married her." There were volumes of innuendo in the way the eventually was spaced, and each syllable given its due stress— Wharton

}

{

he learned by chance remarks overheard, from innuendo, a dropped word here and there, a sly, meaningful snicker— Harold Sinclair

}

Analogous words: hinting or hint, implying or implication, suggestion, intimation (see corresponding verbs at SUGGEST): *animadversion, aspersion, reflection: imputation, ascription (see corresponding verbs as ASCRIBE): allusion (see corresponding verb at REFER)