ppl. a. [f. prec. + -ED1.]
† 1. Heaped up. Obs. rare–0.
1552. Huloet, Exaggerated, repositus, a, um.
2. Magnified or inflated beyond the limits of fact, justice, propriety or truth; excessive.
The ordinary application of the pple. and ppl. adj. now differs from that of the finite verb: we say that a speaker ‘exaggerates his facts,’ but it is his statements that are described as ‘exaggerated.’
1725. Pope, Pref. to Shaks., p. v. The most exaggerated Thoughts; the most verbose and bombast Expression.
1812. Sir H. Davy, Chem. Philos., 18. His exaggerated censure of the methods of the ancients … had an effect in diminishing their popularity.
1843. Bethune, Scott. Peasant’s Fire-side, 39. Before any exaggerated report could reach them.
1849. Cobden, Speeches, 37. There has prevailed a most exaggerated idea as to the necessity of that force.
a. 1862. Buckle, Misc. Wks. (1872), I. 308. Gods were exaggerated heroes, and their heroes were exaggerated men.
3. Abnormally enlarged, monstrous, overgrown.
1860. Tyndall, Glac., I. x. 65. My route was an exaggerated zigzag.
1885. Olive T. Miller, in Harper’s Mag., March, 600. He resembles an exaggerated wren.
