Not saying what you mean is what euphemisms are all about. The trouble is, for a euphemism to work, you have to know what it means. And if you know what is meant, sooner or later you will need another euphemism for the euphemism. Thus we have words and phrases like restroom, bathroom, washroom, lavatory, little girls' room, throne, tearoom, facilities, commode and so on. We don't even know what the original word is that we are trying so hard not to say.
The book is about 500 pages long and with fairly small print. Thus, it contains many, many euphemisms and because it was published more than two decades ago, a newer edition would doubtless contain many more pages.
As you might expect, most euphemisms deal with delicate subjects, especially sex, bodily functions, drunkenness and death. The last 50 pages or so of the book may actually be the most interesting, for here, instead of going euphemism by euphemism in alphabetical order, Holder gives the meaning we are trying to hide and then lists the euphemisms.
The euphemisms for drunkenness go on for nearly three pages. These include such words as battered, bender, boiled, floating, foggy, gone, high, loaded, plastered, ripped, shot, stewed and zonked, and this is just a fraction of the total.
If you don't want to say what you mean, there are clearly many ways to say it.
Some euphemisms have multiple meanings, and so context is key. The word cold, for example, can mean dead or it can mean not interested in sex or it can be a word used to hide a more embarrassing ailment. Or it can simply mean cold.
Sometimes Holder lists as euphemisms words I assumed were not euphemisms at all, words like bisexual and boyfriend. I knew there were euphemisms for bisexual, but is bisexual itself a euphemism? What is it a euphemism for? Holder doesn't say. He just provides a definition, which is what an ordinary dictionary does.
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