attitudinize

• attitudinise

From Italian attitudine +‎ -ize.

• IPA^(key): /ˌætɪˈtjuːdɪnaɪz/, /ˌætɪˈtuːdɪnaɪz/

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

1. (intransitive) To assume an affected, unnatural exaggerated attitude or pose.
   • 1809, Hannah More, Cœlebs in Search of a Wife, The Works of Hannah More, London: T. Cadell, 1830, Volume VII, Chapter 9, p. 73,

     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 attitudinise at the harp […]

   • 1842, [anonymous collaborator of Letitia Elizabeth Landon], chapter XLI, in Lady Anne Granard; or, Keeping up Appearances. […], volume II, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, page 223:

     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.

   • 1880, Mark Twain, chapter 19, in A Tramp Abroad‎, Hartford: American Publishing Company, page 183:

     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.

   • 1953, Raymond Chandler, chapter 14, in The Long Goodbye‎, New York: Ballantine, published 1971, page 87:

     “That mean anything to you, Mrs Wade?”
     “Just attitudinizing. He has always been a great admirer of Scott Fitzgerald.”

2. (transitive) To cause to assume a pose.
   • 1951, Hortense Calisher, “In Greenwich There Are Many Gravelled Walks”, in Mid-Century: An Anthology of Distinguished Contemporary American Short Stories‎, New York: Washington Square Press, published 1958, page 181:

     In Greenwich, there were many gravelled walks, unshrubbed except for the nurses who dotted them, silent and attitudinized as trees.

3. (transitive) To give the appearance of, make a show of by posing.
   • 1901, Joseph Conrad, Ford Madox Ford, chapter 11, in The Inheritors‎, London: Heinemann, page 178:

     Radet was a cadaverous, weather-worn, passion-worn individual, badger-grey, and worked up into a grotesquely attitudinised fury of injured self-esteem

   • 1924, Gilbert Frankau, chapter 5, in Gerald Cranston’s Lady‎, Toronto: F.D. Goodchild:

     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.

• posturize