to embroider

Examples

• All

• When he told his childhood stories, he tended to embroider the details for dramatic effect.

• Ceremonious and correct, Ascolino embroidered his speech with the brocades of old Portugal, which he admired so much.

  Fiction book (1990)

• You've taken my simple exercises in logic... and embellished them, embroidered them... exaggerated them.

  The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes (1970)

• Overall, Shore et al. (1991) found a richly embroidered tapestry of assumptions and assertions.

  Academic text (1997)

• Expedition sponsors considered a well-rendered field drawing preferable to a written description embroidered with metaphor (Kinsey 1992).

  Academic text (2000)

• He has a knack for storytelling, often choosing to embroider the truth with imaginative details.

Synonyms

E

to embellish

vsto embroider

19 6.1

To add extra details to a story, sometimes making it less true

leans more toward adding details that exaggerate beyond the truth

P

to pad

vsto embroider

19 6.5

To add extra, unnecessary details to make something seem bigger or better

is similar but more about ornamenting stories and often exaggerating

D

to dramatize

vsto embroider

15 4.2

To make something seem more exciting or important than it really is

is more about adding extra factual details that often exaggerate

A

to aggrandize

vsto embroider

• Formal

5 9.5

To make something seem more important by adding details or exaggerating

adds extra details similarly but with a stronger tendency to exaggerate

B

to blow up

vsto embroider

2 4.3

To add more details to an idea or story

instead tends to add details that go beyond truth and embellish accounts

S

to spin a yarn

vsto embroider

• Informal

1 6.8

To tell a long made-up or exaggerated story

is more about adding extra detail to an account, often exaggerating

L

to lard

vsto embroider

1 7.7

To add extra details to speech or writing to make it more interesting

tends to add such details with a stronger push toward exaggeration

S

to spin a story

vsto embroider

1 4.8

Make up and tell a tale, often to entertain or avoid trouble

leans more toward enhancing an existing account with extra exaggeration

Y

to yarn

vsto embroider

• Informal

1 6.7

To tell a long story that is probably not true

focuses more on adding extra details to an account rather than inventing

O

to overtell

vsto embroider

7.1

To make a story sound more exciting or important than it really is

focuses more on adding extra details that often stretch the truth

Antonyms

S

to simplify

99 2.5

Make something easier to understand or use

U

to understate

18 5.2

To make something seem smaller or less important than it really is

How Embellished

to exaggerate

258 3.1

to embroider

3 5.5

to describe

∞ 1.0

report

∞ 1.3

Surface Forms

Morphology

Etymology