| 释义 |
exaggerate, v.|ɛgˈzædʒəreɪt|
Also 6 exagerat.
[f. L. exaggerāt- ppl. stem of exaggerā-re, f. ex- intensive + aggerā-re to heap up, f. agger heap. Cf. F. exagérer, 16th c. exaggerer.]
†1. trans. To heap or pile up, accumulate: said with reference to both material and immaterial objects; also to form by accumulation. Obs.
1533More Apol. Wks. 871/1 Yf hee woulde..take no suche bywayes, he woulde not..accumulate and exaggerate the gryefes. 1553T. Wilson Rhet. 63 b, In praisyng or dispraisyng, wee muste exaggerate those places towardes the ende, whiche make menne wonder at the straungenesse of any thyng. 1583Stubbes Anat. Abus. (1877) 58 With their flipping and flapping up and down in the dirte they exaggerate a mountain of mire. 1621Burton Anat. Mel. ii. iii. iii. (1651) 330 What a deal of trouble..do we sustain and exaggerate unto ourselves, to get that secure happiness..which we peradventure shall never have. 1677Hale Prim. Orig. Man. ii. vii. 191 Trees of Oak and Firr..covered by..the Silt and Moorish Earth exaggerated upon them. Ibid. iv. ii. 299 The water..exaggerating and raising Islands and Continents in other parts.
†2. To ‘pile up’ (eulogies, accusations); to emphasize (statements); to make much of, dwell on the greatness of (virtues, faults, conditions, etc.).
1564Brief. Exam. Sig.* iij, To exagerat the matter agaynste them..shall..be spared. 1581Marbeck Bk. of Notes 707 This word (Mene) is doubled.. to exaggerate the certaintie of the matter. 1603Knolles Hist. Turks (1621) 1123 Alledging and exaggerating many his most cruell actions. 1620Shelton Quix. (1725) III. ii. xxv. 175 They told..what had happened in the search for the ass, the one exaggerating the other's cunning in braying. 1650R. Stapylton Strada's Low-C. Warres x. 19 Exaggerating, indeed not falsely, the Necessity of the Provinces. 1656Earl of Monmouth Advt. fr. Parnass. 387 It was..very praise⁓worthy in Bishop Jovius to exaggerate the praises of the Princes his Benefactors. a1734North Lives I. 401 His lordship..used to exaggerate the monstrous impudence of Counsel that insisted so iniquitably.
3. To magnify beyond the limits of truth; to represent something as greater than it really is.
(The 16th century quots. may belong to 2.)
[1563–87Foxe A. & M. (1596) 359/2 Thus they aggerating and exaggerating the fault to the vttermost flie vpon the poore asse and deuour him. 1599Marston Sco. Villanie i. iii. 182 Rufus, Ile terme thee but intemperate, I will not once thy vice exaggerate.] 1613R. C. Table Alph. (ed. 3), Exaggerate, to make a thing more then it is. a1631Donne Septuagint (1633) 105 Men, when they heare anything..to utter and augment the same..and to exaggerate the same by words odious and bitter. 1712Addison Spect. No. 399 ⁋5 A Friend exaggerates a Man's Virtues, an Enemy inflames his Crimes. 1772Junius Lett. Pref. 10 They..greatly exaggerate the evil they complain of. 1832Webster, Exaggerate, in Painting to heighten in colour or design. 1868J. H. Blunt Ref. Ch. Eng. I. 401 A modern historian..has done his best to exaggerate everything that would tell against the clergy. 1874Green Short Hist. vi. 333 The charges were grossly exaggerated, but there is no ground for believing them to have been wholly untrue.
absol.1781Gibbon Decl. & F. III. xlviii. 29 Calumny is more prone to exaggerate than to invent. 1840Carlyle Heroes (1858) 266 In no point does he [Shakspeare] exaggerate but only in laughter. 1878Gladstone Prim. Homer 59 Early navigators exaggerate without fear to enhance the interest of their tales.
4. To intensify, aggravate (conditions, etc.), abnormally; to make (physical features, etc.) of abnormal size.
1850L. Hunt Autobiog. I. vii. 276 A nose exaggerated by intemperance. 1868Rogers Pol. Econ. viii. (ed. 3) 73 The existing distress was exaggerated by this great social change. 1873Mivart Elem. Anat. ii. 51 In the preponderating size of the Lumbar Vertebrae man but exaggerates a character generally present in his class. |