EMBELLISH

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does embellish mean? 

• EMBELLISH (verb)
  The verb EMBELLISH has 4 senses:

1. add details to

2. be beautiful to look at

3. make more attractive by adding ornament, colour, etc.

4. make more beautiful

  Familiarity information: EMBELLISH used as a verb is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• EMBELLISH (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they embellish    ... he / she / it embellishes   
Past simple: embellished   
Past participle: embellished   
-ing form: embellishing   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Add details to

Classified under:

Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing

Synonyms:

aggrandise; aggrandize; blow up; dramatise; dramatize; embellish; embroider; lard; pad

Hypernyms (to "embellish" is one way to...):

amplify; exaggerate; hyperbolise; hyperbolize; magnify; overdraw; overstate (to enlarge beyond bounds or the truth)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "embellish"):

glorify (cause to seem more splendid)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s something with something

Sentence example:

They won't embellish the story

Derivation:

embellishment (elaboration of an interpretation by the use of decorative (sometimes fictitious) detail)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Be beautiful to look at

Classified under:

Verbs of being, having, spatial relations

Synonyms:

adorn; beautify; deck; decorate; embellish; grace

Context example:

Flowers adorned the tables everywhere

Hypernyms (to "embellish" is one way to...):

be (have the quality of being; (copula, used with an adjective or a predicate noun))

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "embellish"):

ornament (be an ornament to)

Sentence frame:

Something ----s something

Sentence example:

Holly flowers embellish the halls

Sense 3

Meaning:

Make more attractive by adding ornament, colour, etc.

Classified under:

Verbs of sewing, baking, painting, performing

Synonyms:

adorn; beautify; decorate; embellish; grace; ornament

Context example:

beautify yourself for the special day

Hypernyms (to "embellish" is one way to...):

alter; change; modify (cause to change; make different; cause a transformation)

Verb group:

ornament (be an ornament to)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "embellish"):

prank (dress or decorate showily or gaudily)

panel (decorate with panels)

redecorate (redo the decoration of an apartment or house)

bejewel; jewel (adorn or decorate with precious stones)

filet; fillet (decorate with a lace of geometric designs)

scallop (decorate an edge with scallops)

bedizen (decorate tastelessly)

dress ship (decorate a ship with flags)

dress; garnish; trim (decorate (food), as with parsley or other ornamental foods)

trim (decorate, as with ornaments)

bedeck; bedight; deck (decorate)

festoon (decorate with strings of flowers)

enamel (coat, inlay, or surface with enamel)

inlay (decorate the surface of by inserting wood, stone, and metal)

lacquer (coat with lacquer)

begild; engild; gild (decorate with, or as if with, gold leaf or liquid gold)

illuminate (add embellishments and paintings to (medieval manuscripts))

blazon; emblazon (decorate with heraldic arms)

color; colour; emblazon (decorate with colors)

fringe (adorn with a fringe)

fret (decorate with an interlaced design)

landscape (embellish with plants)

tart up (decorate in a cheap and flashy way)

wreathe (decorate or deck with wreaths)

beset; encrust; incrust (decorate or cover lavishly (as with gems))

braid (decorate with braids or ribbons)

broider; embroider (decorate with needlework)

stick (cover and decorate with objects that pierce the surface)

illustrate (supply with illustrations)

garland (adorn with bands of flowers or leaves)

fledge; flight (decorate with feathers)

bespangle; spangle (decorate with spangles)

foliate (decorate with leaves)

flag (decorate with flags)

bard; barde; caparison; dress up (put a caparison on)

bead (decorate by sewing beads onto)

pipe (trim with piping)

applique (sew on as a decoration)

gild the lily; paint the lily (adorn unnecessarily (something that is already beautiful))

vermiculate (decorate with wavy or winding lines)

smock (embellish by sewing in straight lines crossing each other diagonally)

hang (decorate or furnish with something suspended)

tinsel (adorn with tinsel)

stucco (decorate with stucco work)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Something ----s something

Sentence example:

They embellish the halls with holly

Derivation:

embellishment (the act of adding extraneous decorations to something)

Sense 4

Meaning:

Make more beautiful

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Synonyms:

beautify; embellish; fancify; prettify

Hypernyms (to "embellish" is one way to...):

ameliorate; amend; better; improve; meliorate (to make better)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "embellish"):

curry; dress; groom (give a neat appearance to)

groom; neaten (care for one's external appearance)

become; suit (enhance the appearance of)

polish; shine; smooth; smoothen (make (a surface) shine)

slick up; smarten up; spiff up; spruce; spruce up; titivate; tittivate (make neat, smart, or trim)

dress up; window-dress (make something appear superficially attractive)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Something ----s something

 Context examples 

He has occasional employment on the same newspaper, in getting up the facts of dry subjects, to be written about and embellished by more fertile minds.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Venus rules beauty, fun, luxury, and all the things that embellish—designer clothes, jewels, perfume, champagne, fine wines and chocolates, flowers, lingerie, and more.

(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)

The famous air-gun of Von Herder will embellish the Scotland Yard Museum, and once again Mr. Sherlock Holmes is free to devote his life to examining those interesting little problems which the complex life of London so plentifully presents.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

It is pleasant to me to observe, Watson, that you have so far grasped this truth that in these little records of our cases which you have been good enough to draw up, and, I am bound to say, occasionally to embellish, you have given prominence not so much to the many causes célèbres and sensational trials in which I have figured but rather to those incidents which may have been trivial in themselves, but which have given room for those faculties of deduction and of logical synthesis which I have made my special province.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

You have shown your relish for it by the enthusiasm which has prompted you to chronicle, and, if you will excuse my saying so, somewhat to embellish so many of my own little adventures.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Among the rest, she converted the pantry into a dressing-room for me; and purchased and embellished a bedstead for my occupation, which looked as like a bookcase in the daytime as a bedstead could.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Having uttered which, with great distinctness, she begged the favour of being shown to her room, which became to me from that time forth a place of awe and dread, wherein the two black boxes were never seen open or known to be left unlocked, and where (for I peeped in once or twice when she was out) numerous little steel fetters and rivets, with which Miss Murdstone embellished herself when she was dressed, generally hung upon the looking-glass in formidable array.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)