slight chill

slight chill
   a pretext for not keeping an engagement
   An indisposition which the draughts of royal palaces seem to induce:
    'What shall I tell them? A slight chill?'
   'That sounds a deal too much like
   Buckingham Palace. Just say I'm out.'
   (Ustinov, 1971)
   Royal personages are also martyrs to slight colds and indispositions. However, the phrases can also be used, as with geriatric Russian leaders, to try to conceal the gravity of an illness:
    Every other paper reported that Attlee is now getting better from a slight indisposition. (Crossman, 1981 — Attlee when Prime Minister had had an attack of cerebral thrombosis)

How not to say what you mean: A dictionary of euphemisms. . 2014.

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