embellishment
/ɪmˈbɛlɪʃm(ə)nt
/ /ɛmˈbɛlɪʃm(ə)nt/noun
1A decorative detail or feature added to something to make it more attractive: architectural embellishments...
- Many post & board fence designs feature decorative variations and embellishments that enhance their functional use while accenting their surroundings.
- Decorative embellishments consist of two cobalt blue swags extending from a central round cobalt blue floral motif to the left and right handles.
- There are several techniques for creating beautiful moldings and architectural embellishments for very little money.
Synonyms
decoration, ornamentation, adornment;
beautification, enhancement, trimming, trim, garnishing, gilding, frill, enrichment;
varnishing, embroidery;
decorating, embellishing, bedecking, festooning, emblazoning
1.1A detail, especially one that is untrue, added to a statement or story to make it more interesting: stripped of her embellishments, the core of hard fact was disappointingly small...
- Jefferson famously excised all miracles from his copy of the King James Bible; as a rationalist and a deist, he considered such stories to be needless embellishments.
- However, others will find that the historically grounded embellishments enliven the story of Richard Etheridge and the Pea Island lifesavers, a story that has been long overdue in its telling.
- The changes and embellishments to Poe's story don't really add up to enough to fill the running time.
Synonyms
elaboration, addition, exaggeration;
digression, deviation
1.2 [mass noun] The action of adding decorative details: the embellishment of church interiors through the use of the visual arts...
- Programmes of building and sculptural embellishment of major churches, for example at Exeter, Lichfield and Winchester cathedrals, were halted by the outbreak of plague.
- Therefore, to church members the Book of Mormon is not fiction, not pseudepigrapha, not literary embellishment, not a parable or an allegory, but a book about real people who lived in ancient times.
- This local competition has been linked, in part, to the battle for prestige between the guilds that were responsible for the maintenance, construction, and embellishment of the two churches.