attitudinize

verb

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.”

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!”

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."”

   “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, […]”

   “The elegant Sparkins attitudinized with admirable effect until the family had crossed the room.”

   “His assistant clerk played well into his hands, and his assistant lady attetudenized with immense effect, playing comic muse, or tragic, as the case admitted.”

   “I was the only one of our party who saw this grand sight; the others were attitudinizing, for the benefit of the long rank of young ladies who were promenading on the bank, and so they lost it.”

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?”

   “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.”

   “There was a short typewritten paragraph on it, no more. It read, "I do not care to be in love with myself and there is no longer anyone else for me to be in love with. Signed: Roger (F. Scott Fitzgerald) Wade. P.S. This is why I never finished The Last Tycoon." / "That mean anything to you, Mrs. Wade?" / "Just attitudinizing. He has always been a great admirer of Scott Fitzgerald.[…]"”