Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Ambages

Ambages ({not transcribed}) , noun, plural

[Latin (usually in pl.); pref. ambi-, amb- + agere to drive: compare French ambage.]

A circuit; a winding. Hence: Circuitous way or proceeding; quibble; circumlocution; indirect mode of speech.
After many ambages, perspicuously define what this melancholy is. — Burton