attitudinize

Verb

attitudinize (third-person singular simple present attitudinizes, present participle attitudinizing, simple past and past participle attitudinized)

1. (British, English, Oxford, US, transitive) To cause (someone or something) to assume an attitude or pose; to pose, to posture.
   • In Greenwich, there were many gravelled walks, unshrubbed except for the nurses who dotted them, silent and attitudinized as trees.1951, Hortense Calisher, “In Greenwich there are Many Gravelled Walks”, in In the Absence of Angels: Stories, Boston, Mass.; Toronto, Ont.: Little, Brown and Company, →OCLC, page 14
2. (British, English, Oxford, US, transitive) To give the appearance of, or make a show of, (something) by assuming an affected or exaggerated attitude.
   • While she, one hand on his arm, had been attitudinizing her dutiful gratitude, he—as she suddenly realized—had been deciding to rid her of Fordham [her estate manager]. No sentimentalizing, no attitudinizing there!1924, Gilbert Frankau, chapter 5, in Gerald Cranston’s Lady, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.; London: The Century Co., →OCLC, section 1, page 54
3. (British, English, Oxford, US, intransitive) To assume an attitude or pose, especially one which is affected, exaggerated, or unnatural; to posture, to posturize; also, to excessively practise adopting attitudes or poses.
   • He had a great averſion to geſticulating in company. He called once to a gentleman vvho offended him in that point, "Don't attitudeniſe."1791, James Boswell, quoting Samuel Johnson, “[1784]”, in James Boswell, editor, The Life of Samuel Johnson, LL.D. […], volume II, London: […] Henry Baldwin, for Charles Dilly, […], →OCLC, page 518
   • Charlotte, who has the beſt voice, was brought out to ſing, but was placed a little behind, as her perſon is not quite perfect; Maria, who is the moſt pictureſque figure, was put to attitudinize at the harp, […]1808, [Hannah More], chapter IX, in Cœlebs in Search of a Wife. […], volume I, London: […] [Strahan and Preston] for T[homas] Cadell and W[illiam] Davies, […], →OCLC, pages 107–108
4. (British, English, Oxford, US, figuratively, intransitive) To create art, speak, or write in a manner which assumes affected, exaggerated, or unnatural attitudes.
   • [W]hoso rhymes a sonnet pays a tax, / Who paints a landscape dips brush at his cost, / Who scores a septett true for strings and wind / Mulcted must be—else how should I impose / Properly, attitudinize aright, / Did such conflicting claims as these divert / Hohenstiel-Schwangau from observing me?1871 December, Robert Browning, Prince Hohenstiel-Schwangau, Saviour of Society, London: Smith, Elder and Co., →OCLC, page 124
   • In every line that he wrote Cicero was attitudinising for posterity, or reflecting on the effect of his conduct upon his interests or his reputation.1879, James Anthony Froude, chapter XIV, in Cæsar: A Sketch, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., →OCLC, page 194