a. [f. EXAGGERATE v. + -IVE. Cf. Fr. exagératif.]
1. Of a statement, representation, etc.: Marked by exaggeration, hyperbolical.
1797. A. Geddes, Bible, II. Pref. p. viii. note. This exaggerative language warns us not to take words of that kind in a strict theological meaning.
1863. Sat. Rev., Jan., 123. The exaggerative character of these drawings.
1880. J. Hawthorne, Ellice Quentin, I. 97. Let this confession put the reader on his guard against whatever exaggerative or prejudicial statements he may fancy he detects in what I have told or have yet to tell.
2. Of persons: Given to exaggerate; prone to exaggeration.
1837. Carlyle, Fr. Rev., III. v. iv. ‘Out of doors,’ continues the exaggerative man, ‘were mad multitudes dancing round the bonfire.’
1854. H. Miller, Sch. & Schm., xxiii. (1857), 505. The tender passion is always a strangely exaggerative one.
1870. J. H. Friswell, Mod. Men Lett., 32. Dickens was very often exaggerative and pantomimic.
Hence Exaggeratively adv., in an exaggerative manner. Exaggerativeness, the quality of being exaggerative.
1856. Chamb. Jrnl., V. 365. Exaggeratively exhibiting the defects of the system.
1867. Carlyle, Remin., II. 16. ‘It were better to perish,’ as I exaggeratively said to myself, ‘than continue schoolmastering.’
1873. Spectator, 22 Feb., 245/1. A certain exaggerativeness in some of his anecdotes.
