A brief, unexplained reference to a work or to a person, place, event, or thing that the writer expects the reader to be familiar with.

a brief or indirect reference to something or someone known to most people.

referring to a text or myth, outside of the poem itself, that carries its own history of meaning

a direct or indirect reference - through an image or through dialogue - to the Bible, a classic, a person, a place, an external and/or real-life event, another film, or a well-known cultural idea Example: In Red River (1948), Montgomery Clift (as Matt Dunson) and John Ireland (as Cherry Valance) show off their guns to each other and ask: "You know, there are only two things more beautiful than a good gun: a Swiss watch or a woman from anywhere. You ever had a good Swiss watch?" - a scene often interpreted as alluding to homosexuality

(literary term) a reference to some well-known event, person or work of art.

A reference in a work of literature to something outside the work, especially to a well-known historical or literary event, person, or work. Lorraine Hansberry's title A Raisin in the Sun is an allusion to a phrase in a poem by Langston Hughes. When T. S. Eliot writes, "To have squeezed the universe into a ball" in "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock," he is alluding to the lines "Let us roll all our strength and all / Our sweetness up into one ball" in Marvell's "To His Coy Mistress." In Hamlet, when Horatio says, "ere the mightiest Julius fell," the allusion is to the death of Julius Caesar.

n. an allusion is a brief reference to a well-known person, place or event; some other allusions are to a verse from the Bible or a line from Shakespeare. For instance, St. Ambrose said, "When in Rome, live as the Romans do; when elsewhere, live as they live elsewhere." [Advice to St. Augustine, quoted by Jeremy Taylor

an indirect reference to any person, place, or thing, actual or fictional

Reference to immediately recognizable people, places, events, or other literary works. eg. "She had Madonna hair."

a brief reference to an historical or literary figure, event, or object

a brief suggestive reference to another text, a historical fact, a political event, etc

a figure of speech that compares aspects of people, places, things, and ideas with their familiar counterparts in history, mythology, scripture, literature, popular culture, etc

a hidden reference to something

a hint, a reference

a literary device that stimulates ideas, associations, and extra information in the reader's mind with only a word or two

an economical means of calling upon the history or the literary tradition that the author and reader share

an indirect or subtle reference to something

a reference and an inference

a reference made in a piece of literature to something such as an outside person, place, event, or another work of literature

a reference to a book, movie, song, building, quotation, or anything with which the writer thinks the reader is reasonably familiar

a reference to a famous person, place, thing or part of another work of literature

a reference to a person, event, fact, or place that appears in history, the Bible or literature

a reference to a person, place, event, or thing that bears an association to the topic of a discourse

a reference to a well-known person, myth, historical event, etc

a reference to someone or something that is known from history, literature, religion, politics, sports, science or some other branch of culture

a reference to some person, place or event that a reader is likely to recognize

a reference to some well known place, event or person

References to literary, artistic, scientific, or historical people, places, or things. examples- "Even Sir Thomas Moore, so often praised for his enlightened approach to the education of his daughter Margaret Roper, shared the belief that women were frivolously loquacious by nature." Antonia Fraser "What can be more moving than a wise, high-strung woman begging a child's forgiveness, even as King Lear knelt to Cordelia for Pardon." Helen Keller "The lessening of greatness in the music of modern times can be traced to Darwin, Marx, Einstein, and Freud. . . . " Lewis Thomas "Bears simply brought out the Hyde in my Jeckyll-headed dog." John Steinbeck Travels with Charly ". . . the younger crowd for who I now felt a contempt such as only a disillusioned dreamer feels for those still unaware that they dream--the business students from southern colleges for whom business was vague, an abstract games with rules as obsolete as Noah's Ark, but who yet were drunk on finance." Ralph Ellison The Invisible Man

a reference to another literary / artistic/ historic, work, author, character, or event (frequently biblical or mythological)

A reference in literature or in visual or performing arts, to a familiar person, place, thing, or event. Allusions to Biblical figures and figures from classical mythology are common in Western literature.

A reference, explicit or implicit, to a culture's classical literature. The Honda Odyssey minivan references Homer's epic poem The Odyssey.

Allusion is a reference to a well-known person, place, or event from life or literature. In “Opera Night in Canada”, for example, Michael McKinley alludes to characters in the famous opera Madame Butterfly and the performance of the Toronto Maple Leafs hockey team when he says, “. . . the idea of these two art forms being united after all this time is as shocking as Pinkerton returning to marry Madame Butterfly or the Leafs being united with the Stanley Cup.

is a reference to a well-known person, place, or event from life or literature. In "Genius or Madness?", for example, Lynn Coady alludes to J.D. Salinger's main character in Catcher in the Rye when she says, "When young Holden Caulfield denounces his clean-cut compatriots as phonies and whores, post-war America recoils." See also David Arnason's allusion to the central character in Thomas Hardy's Return of the Native: "I stole Eustacia Vye from Hardy and gave her another name." Analogy

A brief reference to a historical person, event, or idea, such as references to Shakespearean lines or characters. When using allusions, the writer assumes that s/he and the reader share similar knowledge.

an implied or indirect comparison to a well known literary or historical person, place, or event.

allusio 'a playing with'; ¨å¬G): A reference to another text or event.

A passing reference to or obscure mention of someone or some event.

A figure of speech making casual reference to a famous historical or literary figure or event.

A reference to a familiar concept, person, or thing.

Where a poem makes reference to another poem or text. For example, the 14th line of The Prelude by William Wordsworth 'The earth was all before me' alludes to one of the final lines of Paradise Lost by John Milton 'The world was all before them'. Paradise Lost, in turn, alludes to the story of Adam and Eve in Genesis. A poem containing multiple allusions is The Waste Land by T.S.Eliot which makes reference to lines written by Shakespeare, Milton, Spenser, Verlaine, Baudelaire, Marvell, Dante, Webster, St. Augustine, Goldsmith, Ovid etc. Allusion should not be confused with plagiarism. See also intertextuality.

An implied or indirect reference in a literary text to another text.

An indirect reference to something assumed to be familiar.

A reference to a familiar literary or historical person or event, used to make an idea more easily understood. For example, describing someone as a "Romeo" makes an allusion to William Shakespeare's famous young lover in Romeo and Juliet.

An indirect, but pointed or meaningful reference.

a direct or indirect reference to a person, event, work of art, etc. (Compare with illusion.)

Is a reference, without explicit identification to a presumably familiar person, place event or to another literary work or passage. Example: In this passage, the author makes an allusion to Helen of Troy: Brightness falls from the air, Queens have died young and fair, Dust hath closed Helen's eyes. & nbsp; --Thomas Nashe “Litany in Time of Plague

A brief reference in a literary work to a person, place, thing or passage in another literary work, usually for the purpose of associating the TONE or THEME of the one work with the other. The many allusions in T.S. Eliot's poem The Wasteland, for example, refer to the Bible and Milton's Paradise Lost.

an instance of indirect reference

a reference - whether explicit or implicit, to history, the Bible, myth, literature, painting, music, and so on - that suggests the meaning or generalized implication of details in the story, poem, or play.

Reference to something else, such as another work of literature.

is an implied or indirect reference to something or someone assumed to be in the common body of knowledge, usually in the Bible, Shakespeare or mythology. Example: As troubles piled on troubles, he became an absolute Job.

indirect mention

is a reference to another work of literature within writing. An allusion will not always be recognized unless the reader is familiar with the referenced piece. Allusions imply reading and cultural experiences shared by the writer and reader, functioning as a kind of shorthand whereby the recalling of something outside the work supplies an emotional or intellectual context. Example: In Othello, Othello's allusion to Prometheus explains his wish to put out Desdemona's light in order to restore her former innocence.

an indirect brief reference to an historical or literary person, place, object, or event. Allusions appeal subtly to the memory of the reader, depending for their effectiveness on a body of knowledge shared by writer and reader. Biblical allusions and allusions to Shakespeare are common.

an indirect reference to a person, place, event, or literary work with which the author believes the reader will be familiar.

One of the ways in which poetry compresses language is through allusion, reference to other literary works or outside knowledge the reader is expected to know or at least recognize. A reference to something historical, mythological, or literary in a poem without explaining it.

An allusion refers to a familiar person, place, or thing, whether real or imaginary. The allusion is one way to evoke emotions or create atmospheres.

a reference, sometimes indirect, to a person, place, theory etc. which the reader is assumed to have some knowledge of. e.g. a Biblical allusion with which the reader is assumed to be familiar.

A reference in an artwork to elements not contained within the artwork itself.

an indirect or oblique reference within a text to another text or work. Hence a subtle artistic quotation or homage. For example, the opening sentence of Cat's Cradle--"Call me Jonah"--alludes to both an Old Testament prophet and the opening line of Melville's Moby Dick.

References to literary, artistic, scientific, or historical people, places, or things; the storm was small, not like the "Katrina catastrophe" in 2005.

Allusion is a stylistic device or trope, in which one refers covertly or indirectly to an object or circumstance that has occurred or existed in an external context. It is left to the reader or hearer to make the connection (Fowler); an overt allusion is a misnomer for what is simply a reference. In the most traditional sense, allusion is a literary term, though the word also has come to encompass indirect references to any source, including film, art, or real events.