elaborate
adjEtymology
1575, from Late Latin ēlabōrātus (“worked out”), past participle of ēlabōrō (“to work out”), from ē- (“out, forth, fully”) + labor (“work, toil, exertion”). More at e-, labour.
Definitions
Complex, detailed, or sophisticated.
- After reading a long, elaborate description, I was impressed but no wiser.
Intricate, fancy, flashy, or showy.
- I stared for hours at the elaborate pattern in the rug.
- The house was a big elaborate limestone affair, evidently new. Winter sunshine sparkled on lace-hung casement, on glass marquise, and the burnished bronze foliations of grille and door.
Тo develop in detail or complexity.
- […] by the time of the subsequent coronation, when the Prussian king put the crown on his own head in child-like belief of the obsolete doctrine called divine right, the untiring statesman had elaborated his scheme of reform.
- The notion of blood purity was first elaborated in Europe, where it was used to separate Old Christians from Spain’s New Christians—women and men of Jewish and Muslim origin whose ancestors had converted to Christianity.
›+ 1 more definitionshow fewer
To expand/enlarge in detail.
- What do you mean you didn't come home last night? Would you care to elaborate?
- Could you elaborate on the plot for your novel for me?
The neighborhood
Vish — recursive loop
A definitional loop anchored at elaborate. Each word in the ring is defined by the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself. Scroll to it and watch.
A definitional loop anchored at elaborate. Each word in the ring appears in the definition of the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself.
9 hops · closes at elaborate
curated · pre-corpus. live cycle detection across the full graph is the next major milestone.
sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA