You searched for: “allude”
allude (uh LOOD)
To refer to indirectly without specific identification or details, mention, refer, hint, suggest, intimate: "He often alluded to his childhood on the farm." "The candidate alluded to the recent war by saying, 'We’ve all made sacrifices.'"
allude (verb), alludes; alluded; alluding
1. To play with, to joke or to jest at, dally with, to touch lightly upon a subject.
2. To refer (a thing) fancifully or figuratively, to compare symbolically, to (something else): "Kirk told Cathy that he was interested in hearing more about the technology that she alluded to in her presentation."
3. To have an oblique, covert, or indirect reference, to point as it were in passing.
4. To make an indirect or passing reference, to glance at, refer indirectly to: "He was alluding to his first wife."
5. The OED says that allude is often used ignorantly as if it were equal to "refer" in its general sense.
6. Etymology: from Middle French alluder; from Latin alludere, "to joke, to jest"; from ad-, "to" and ludere, "to play". Originally "to mock", later, "to make a fanciful reference to"
This entry is located in the following unit: lud-, ludi-, lus- (page 1)
allude, delude, deluge, deluge, elude, illude, refer
allude (uh LOOD) (verb)
To refer to indirectly without specific identification or details, to mention, to refer to: "During the conversation, Wesley tried to allude to his childhood on the farm."

"The candidate was heard to allude to the recent war by saying, 'We’ve all made sacrifices'."

delude (di LOOD) (verb)
1. To cause someone to believe something that is not true: "Agnes said, if Pedro thinks I care, then he will simply delude himself."
2. To deceive the mind or judgment of: "Much of the spam on the internet is done to delude people with some scheme or trickery."
deluge (DEL yooj) (noun)
A great quantity of something, inundated; submerged: "The deluge of rain caused severe mudslides."
deluge (DEL yooj) (verb)
To give or to send someone a large amount of things at the same time: "The rain storm will deluge the parking lot very soon."
elude (i LOOD) (verb)
1. To avoid, escape from, evade as by daring, cleverness, or skill: "The burglar found a way to elude the police by hiding in a dumpster."

"Even later, the suspect continued to elude the police because they couldn't locate him."

2. To escape the understanding or grasp of: "This is a name that has always eluded Gorden and it continues to elude him."

"The true meaning of this word will continue to elude Rick unless he can find a dictionary."

illude (il LOOD) (verb)
To deceive; to mock; to excite and to disappoint the hopes of: "Any increase in salary will simply illude the staff in this time of economic slowdown."
refer (ri FUHR) (verb)
1. To direct to a source for help or information: "After completing the forms, Beth was able to refer Dustin to the personnel director."
2. To assign or to attribute to; make reference to: "The teacher wanted the class to refer to the history book so he could verify his point."
3. To turn, to go; to consult: "Refer to the last page of the book for answers."

To refer to someone or something is to mention something directly with specific identifications.

James wants to refer Greg to the headlines that allude to the deluge and devastation caused by the flood waters.

Many survivors strived to elude the dangers by climbing to the top of their barns; however, this was just an effort to delude themselves into believing they were safe.

The reality of the situation served to illude them until the rescue boats finally arrived.

This entry is located in the following units: Confusing Words Clarified: Group A; Homonyms, Homophones, Homographs, Synonyms, Polysemes, etc. + (page 5) lud-, ludi-, lus- (page 1)