| Main Entry: | |
| Part of Speech: | verb |
| Definition: | make detailed; expand |
| Synonyms: | amplify, bedeck, clarify, comment, complicate, deck, decorate, develop, devise, discuss, embellish, enhance, enlarge, evolve, expatiate, explain, expound, flesh out, garnish, improve, interpret, ornament, particularize, polish, produce, refine, specify, unfold, work out |
| Antonyms: | make simple, simplify |
| Main Entry: | embroider |
| Part of Speech: | verb |
| Definition: | exaggerate information |
| Synonyms: | aggrandize, amplify, blow-up, build up, color, distend, dramatize, elaborate, embellish, enhance, enlarge, expand, falsify, fudge, heighten, hyperbolize, lie, magnify, make federal case, make mountain out of molehill, overdo, overelaborate, overembellish, overemphasize, overestimate, overstate, pad, play up, puff, romanticize, spread on thick, stretch, stretch the truth, yeast |
| Main Entry: | enhance |
| Part of Speech: | verb |
| Definition: | improve, embellish |
| Synonyms: | add to, adorn, aggrandize, amplify, appreciate, augment, beautify, boom, boost, build up, complement, elevate, embroider, enlarge, exaggerate, exalt, flesh out, heighten, increase, intensify, lift, magnify, pad, pyramid, raise, reinforce, strengthen, swell, upgrade |
| Antonyms: | decrease, fix, lower, minimize, reduce, worsen |
| Main Entry: | enlarge |
| Part of Speech: | verb |
| Definition: | make or grow bigger; increase |
| Synonyms: | add to, aggrandize, amplify, augment, beef up, blow up, boost, broaden, build, bulk, develop, diffuse, dilate, distend, elaborate, elongate, embroider, exaggerate, expand, expatiate, extend, give details, grow, grow larger, heighten, inflate, jack up, jazz up, lengthen, magnify, make larger, mount, multiply, pad, pyramid, rise, slap on, snowball, spread, stretch, swell, upsurge, wax, widen |
| Antonyms: | abridge, compress, condense, curtail, decrease, diminish, lessen, lower, reduce, shrink |
| Main Entry: | escalate |
| Part of Speech: | verb |
| Definition: | increase, be increased |
| Synonyms: | amplify, ascend, broaden, climb, enlarge, expand, extend, grow, heighten, intensify, magnify, make worse, mount, raise, rise, scale, step up, widen |
| Antonyms: | decrease, diminish, lessen, lower, weaken |
| Main Entry: | exaggerate |
| Part of Speech: | verb |
| Definition: | overstate, embellish |
| Synonyms: | amplify, blow out of proportion, boast, boost, brag, build up, caricature, color, cook up, corrupt, distort, embroider, emphasize, enlarge, exalt, expand, fabricate, falsify, fudge, go to extremes, heighten, hike, hyperbolize, inflate, intensify, lay it on thick, lie, loud talk, magnify, make too much of, misquote, misreport, misrepresent, overdo, overdraw, overemphasize, overestimate, pad, pretty up, puff, put on, pyramid, romance, romanticize, scam, stretch, up* |
| Antonyms: | depreciate, minimize, play down, reduce, understate |
| Main Entry: | expand |
| Part of Speech: | verb |
| Definition: | extend, augment |
| Synonyms: | aggrandize, amplify, beef up, bloat, blow up, bolster, broaden, bulk up, burgeon, detail, develop, diffuse, dilate, distend, elaborate, embellish, enlarge, explicate, fan out, fatten, fill out, grow, heighten, hike, increase, inflate, lengthen, magnify, mount, multiply, mushroom, open, open out, outspread, pad, piggyback, prolong, protract, puff up, pyramid, slap on, soup up, spread, spread out, stretch, stretch out, swell, tack on, thicken, unfold, unfurl, unravel, unroll, upsurge, wax, widen |
| Antonyms: | abbreviate, contract, lessen, lower, shorten, shrink |
| Main Entry: | expand |
| Part of Speech: | verb |
| Definition: | go into detail |
| Synonyms: | amplify, beef up, build up, develop, dilate, discourse, drag out, elaborate, embellish, enlarge, expatiate, expound, extend, flesh out, spell out, sweeten |
| Antonyms: | abbreviate, abridge, shorten |
| Main Entry: | explicate |
| Part of Speech: | verb |
| Definition: | clarify, expand |
| Synonyms: | amplify, clear up, construe, demonstrate, develop, dilate, elucidate, enlarge upon, enucleate, expatiate, explain, expound, give the big picture, illustrate, interpret, make clear, make explicit, make plain, run down, spell out, tell why, unfold, untangle, work out |
| Notes: | explicate also contains the implication that the something of which an account is being given is more complicated or detailed - so while one may explain why a child is crying, one would explicate the meaning of a poem or implications of a legal document; early senses of explain were 'smooth out' and 'spread flat' |
| Antonyms: | cloud, complicate, confuse, mystify, obscure, tangle |