v. 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.
1533. More, Apol., Wks. 871/1. Yf hee woulde … take no suche bywayes, he woulde not … accumulate and exaggerate the gryefes.
1553. T. 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.
1583. Stubbes, Anat. Abus. (1877), 58. With their flipping and flapping up and down in the dirte they exaggerate a mountain of mire.
1621. Burton, Anat. Mel., II. iii. III. (1651), 330. What a deal of trouble … do we sustain and exaggerate unto our selves, to get that secure happiness … which we peradventure shall never have?
1677. Hale, 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.).
1564. Brief Exam., Sig.* iij. To exagerat the matter agaynste them … shall … be spared.
1581. Marbeck, Bk. of Notes, 707. This word (Mene) is doubled … to exaggerate the certaintie of the matter.
1603. Knolles, Hist. Turkes (1610), 1123. Alledging and exaggerating many his most cruell actions.
1620. Shelton, 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.
1650. R. Stapylton, Strada’s Low-C. Warres, X. 19. Exaggerating, indeed not falsely, the Necessity of the Provinces.
1656. Earl Monm., Advt. fr. Parnass., 387. It was … very praise-worthy in Bishop Jovius to exaggerate the praises of the Princes his Benefactors.
a. 1734. North, Lives (1826), 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.)
[1563–87. Foxe, A. & M. (1596), 359/2. Thus they aggerating and exaggerating the fault to the vttermost flie vpon the poore asse and deuour him.
1598. Marston, Sco. Villanie, I. iii. 182.
| Rufus, I’le terme thee but intemperate, | |
| I will not once thy vice exaggerate.] |
1613. R. C., Table Alph. (ed. 3), Exaggerate, to make a thing more then it is.
1633. J. Done, Hist. Septuagint, 105. Men, when they heare any thing … to vtter & augment the same … and to exagerate the same by words odious and bitter.
1712. Addison, Spect., No. 399, ¶ 5. A Friend exaggerates a Man’s Virtues, an Enemy inflames his Crimes.
1772. Junius Lett., Pref. 10. They … greatly exaggerate the evil they complain of.
1832. Webster, Exaggerate, in Painting to heighten in color or design.
1868. J. H. Blunt. Ref. Ch. Eng., I. 401. A modern historian … has done his best to exaggerate everything that would tell against the clergy.
1874. Green, Short Hist., vi. 333. The charges were grossly exaggerated, but there is no ground for believing them to have been wholly untrue.
absol. 1781. Gibbon, Decl. & F., III. xlviii. 29. Calumny is more prone to exaggerate than to invent.
1840. Carlyle, Heroes (1858), 266. In no point does he [Shakspeare] exaggerate but only in laughter.
1878. Gladstone, 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.
1850. L. Hunt, Autobiog., I. vii. 276. A nose exaggerated by intemperance.
1868. Rogers, Pol. Econ., viii. (ed. 3), 73. The existing distress was exaggerated by this great social change.
1873. Mivart, Elem. Anat., ii. 51. In the preponderating size of the LUMBAR VERTEBRÆ man but exaggerates a character generally present in his class.
