Saying something harsh, ugly or forbidden to name in a gentle, indirect or disguised way.
In the Aeneid
I deserved it, and I do not ask to be spared; use your fortune. If any care for an unhappy father can touch you (you too had such a father, Anchises), have pity on the old age of Daunus; and give me back to mine, if you would rather have my body stripped of light. You have won, and the Ausonians have seen the vanquished stretch out his palms: Lavinia is your wife; do not carry your hatred any further.
Turnus calls his own corpse “the body stripped of light,” speaking of death without using the word. The soft, almost poetic manner removes the harshness of the request and makes it more worthy of being heard by Aeneas.