embellish

Definitions  ·  Examples  ·  Pronunciations  ·  Etymologies  ·  Related  ·  Statistics  ·  Comments  · 
“
This may allow people to use email as a crutch, so as to circumvent actual human interaction, embellish, and say things which would otherwise not be said in a personal or even telephone conversation.

View all »
Definitions (9)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (2)

  1. transitive verb To make beautiful, as by ornamentation; decorate.
  2. transitive verb To add ornamental or fictitious details to: a fanciful account that embellishes the true story.

Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (2)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (1)

Toggle WordNet definitions WordNet (4)

Toggle elsewhere links Elsewhere on the web

View all »
Examples (50)

  • “Pray, do not embellish your words,” she said sarcastically. —  ASCENDANCE
  • The 'Preliminary Address'[Dagger] to the Publick is a proof how this great man could embellish, with the graces of superiour composition, even so trite a thing as the plan of a magazine Footnote 1: 'This employment,' wrote Murphy ( Life , p. 88), 'engrossed but little of Johnson's time. —  Life Of Johnson, Vol. 1
  • She did not embellish -- the story was fantastic enough as it was -- and she did not leave out the sad parts or the embarrassing parts. —  F ;SF - vol 104 issue 06 - June 2003
  • The Menorah represents Torah She'baal Peh or the "Oral Law" which is a companion of the Written Torah; the part that man can derive, embellish, and - in a sense - 'create' by using his own diligence and intelligence in accord with the God-given hermeneutical principles —  Settle It Now Negotiation Blog
  • She then goes on to exaggerate, embellish, and out-right lie —  The Liberal OC
More examples »
 

Tags

embellish hasn't been tagged yet.

Sign up or sign in to add tags.

Stats

This word has been looked up 155 times.

stop updating
On Twitter

Photos from

flickr images

Add a related word »
Related

Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

Allen's Allen's Synonyms and Antonyms

Used in the same context Used in the Same Context

Used in the same contextWord Family

embellish:   embellished
Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (2)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Middle English embelishen, from Old French embellir, embelliss- : en-, causative pref.; see en-1 + bel, beautiful (from Latin bellus; see deu-2 in Indo-European roots).

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (1)

  1. Formerly also imbellish; from Middle English embelisshen, embelisen, enbelisen, from Old French (and F.) embelliss-, stem of certain parts of embellir = Provencal embellir, embellezir = Spanish Portuguese embellecer = Italian imbellire, from Latin in- + bellus (from Old French bel, etc.), fair, beautiful: see beau, belle, beauty.
 

Pronunciations
Record your own »
/ɛmˈbɛlɪʃ/
by American Heritage

Charts
frequency chart

Bubble size: how much this word was used in a year

Bubble height: used more or less than expected, vs. all uses evenly distributed

You can expect to see this word about once a month.

Recently looked up

motivation · brb · loopy · cor · clammy

Recent Favorites

pygopagus · sanglant · Astacus · sweetbread · qualms

Recent Pronunciations

Der dicke Dachdecker deckte dir dein Dach, drum dank dem dicken Dachdecker, dass der dicke Dachdecker dir dein Dach deckte. · weitläufig · und wenn sie nicht gestorben sind, so leben sie noch heute · redescheu · selbstverständlich