ex·ag·ger·ate

(ĭg-zăj′ə-rāt′)

v. ex·ag·ger·at·ed, ex·ag·ger·at·ing, ex·ag·ger·ates

v.tr.

To consider, represent, or cause to appear as larger, more important, or more extreme than is actually the case; overstate: exaggerated his own role in the episode; exaggerated the size of the enemy force; exaggerated how difficult the project would be.

v.intr.

To make overstatements.

[Latin exaggerāre, exaggerāt-, to heap up, magnify : ex-, intensive pref.; see ex- + aggerāre, to pile up (from agger, pile, from aggerere, to bring to : ad-, ad- + gerere, to bring).]

ex·ag′ger·at′ed·ly adv.

ex·ag′ger·a′tion n.

ex·ag′ger·a′tive, ex·ag′ger·a·to′ry (-ə-tôr′ē) adj.

ex·ag′ger·a′tor n.

Synonyms: exaggerate, inflate, magnify, overstate
These verbs mean to represent something as being larger or greater than it actually is: exaggerated the size of the fish I caught; inflated his own importance; magnifying her part in their success; overstated his income on the loan application.

Antonym: minimize

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

References in classic literature

I ought to be the last to find any fault with you this evening, when you have met my wishes so freely; but I must say, Jasper, that your devotion to your nephew has made you exaggerative here.'

View in context

It would be exaggerative, indeed irreverent, to say that he ever positively appeared again.

View in context

Talking exaggerative, comedy stuff in Pakistani electronic media has enormously been assimilated with humiliation of trans people.

Transgender inclusivity: What are we missing?

QUETTA -- Provincial Finance Minister Zahoor Buledi has refuted hearsays regarding budget lapse in Balochistan called the rhetoric as exaggerative and baseless.

Opposition parties creating uncertainty among masses: Zahoor Buledi

We find these publications and accompanying images exaggerative and untrue.

NDC HAWKS OPEN GUN FIRE ON PARTY CHAIR

According to one historical account, though it might be exaggerative, the camels loaded with loot of royal luggage made a long que of 25 km when Nadir Shah was leaving Delhi, after staying a dozen weeks in India, in addition to marrying a young lady of pure royal blood and merciless massacre, as well.

Blame on failed educated youth

Ify Onyegbule, a well known radio presenter in Lagos, captured the superlative performance of Ambode in these hardly exaggerative terms on her Facebook timeline: '' If you ask me, I think AkinwunmiAmbode would do well as Nigeria's President!

Managing crises: The Lagos example

Stevenson's best formulation about Thoreau's artistry came packaged this way: "Thus Thoreau was an exaggerative and a parabolical writer, not because he loved the literature of the East, but from a desire that people should understand and realise what he was writing" (Familiar Studies 155).

The Strange Case of Dr. Stevenson and Mr. Thoreau

(16.) Sanyan [phrase omitted] refers to certain literary devices in Zhuangzi, which includes metaphor, repetition and exaggerative expression.

Re-locating Plato: a Chinese Translation and Interpretation of Plato's Symposium

Such exaggerative information supplied by the classical writers appears to have only been meant to magnify Alexander's exploits as they are totally out of tune with evidence of geography of the area.

First Europeans in Ancient Pakistan and their impact on its society

For example, in this line in order to show the power and ability of wisdom to achieve knowledge, he used a poetic, strange and exaggerative that reveals wisdom sees all the unseens"

An analytic investigation of aesthetics and imagery of wisdom in Sanaei's poems

Nevertheless, we have to point out that the preponderance of the spatial deictic forms 'everywhere', 'where', and 'wherever' in the discourse betrays the exaggerative bias of advertising discourse.

Verbal and visual signifiers in some GSM advertisements in Nigeria