exaggerateverb [ I or T ]
uk/ɪɡˈzædʒ.ə.reɪt/us/ɪɡˈzædʒ.ə.reɪt/C1 to make something seem larger, more important, better, or worse than it really is:
The threat of attack has been greatly exaggerated.
Don't exaggerate - it wasn't that expensive.
I'm not exaggerating - it was the worst meal I've ever eaten in my life.
More examples
- You shouldn't believe everything she says - she does tend to exaggerate.
- The minister suggested that some leading environmentalists were exaggerating the issues somewhat.
- She was a bit annoyed, but she wasn't furious - don't exaggerate.
- I don't think it would be exaggerating to say that the composer's new work is a masterpiece.
- He has exaggerated the whole event to make it sound rather more dramatic than it actually was.
Thesaurus: synonyms and related words
Exaggerating & playing down
- blow sth out of proportion idiom
- drama queen
- dramatize
- exaggeration
- lard
- lay
- make a meal (out) of sth idiom
- make much of sth idiom
- make sth of sth
- meal
- over-egg the pudding idiom
- overboard
- overplay
- overstatement
- pad
- pudding
- soft-pedal
- stretch
- stretch the truth idiom
- talk sth down
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exaggerated
adjective uk/ɪɡˈzædʒ.ə.reɪ.tɪd/us/ɪɡˈzædʒ.ə.reɪ.t̬ɪd/
exaggerated reports of the problem
exaggeratedly
adverb uk/ɪɡˈzædʒ.ə.reɪ.tɪd.li/us/ɪɡˈzædʒ.ə.reɪ.t̬ɪd.li/