to overegg the pudding
- idiom
- UK
:
exagerar
- The designer overegged the pudding with too many embellishments on the dress, making it look gaudy.
Examples
-
The propagandists overegged the pudding a bit and said Mao swam nine miles in sixty-five minutes that day, which, as Time noted, would have been a world-record pace.
Blog text (19) -
From the expression to overegg the pudding.
Blog text (21) -
If you overegg the pudding with excessive details in your presentation, your audience may lose interest.
-
His attempt to make the story more exciting only overegged the pudding, turning it into a confusing mess.
Synonyms
258
3.1
To say something is larger, better, or worse than it really is
58
3.6
Do something too much, more than needed
19
6.1
To add extra details to a story, sometimes making it less true
19
6.5
To add extra, unnecessary details to make something seem bigger or better
8
5.5
Treat something as more important than it should be
5
5.2
Act in an exaggerated way that makes a performance feel unnatural
3
4.6
To put too much into something so it cannot close or is too full
3
5.8
Make something harder than it needs to be
3
6.6
Describe something as more serious or emotional than it really is
2
8.8
To make unneeded changes to something already beautiful
1
5.1
Make something seem much bigger or more important than it is
1
5.8
To give something too much importance
1
8.3
Act as if something is much more difficult or important than it is
1
5.4
To make something seem much worse or bigger than it is
To add too much detail and make something more complicated than needed
To make writing or an answer longer than necessary
To give too much detail when explaining something
Describe something as more important or impressive than it really is
To give more explanation than needed and make things confusing or boring
To add too much milk to a drink or to make a joke lose its effect by repeating it
Make colors or tones so strong that an image looks unnatural
Make something too detailed so it becomes less clear or useful
To put too many details or ingredients into something so it becomes bad
To add small not needed decorations to clothes or events to make them seem fancier
To put a lot of sauce on food or to use too much of something
Antonyms
How Elaborate
- UK
58
3.6
19
6.1
99
2.5
Surface Forms
Morphology
overegg + the + pudding
The sense of excess is signalled by the prefixal idea 'over-' plus the literal image of adding eggs to a pudding, so a learner who knows 'over', 'egg' and 'pudding' can partly infer the idea of 'overdoing' or 'making excessive' from the constituents. However, 'overegg the pudding' is a somewhat metaphorical and regionally British phrasing and the verb 'overegg' is uncommon, so the precise idiomatic use and scope (e.g. embellishing speech or description) may not be fully predictable without prior exposure.
Etymology
The idiom overegg the pudding may come from cooking: if you overegg a pudding you put too many eggs into it and the dessert becomes heavy or ruined. So the phrase now means to add too much detail or to 'overdo' something until it is spoiled.