exaggerate: [16] Something that is exaggerated is literally ‘piled up’ out of all due proportion; indeed that is what it originally meant in English: ‘With their flipping and flapping up and down in the dirt they exaggerate a mountain of mire’, Philip Stubbes, Anatomy of Abuses 1583. It was not really until the 17th century that the current sense ‘overemphasize’ came to the fore, although it was already present in the word’s Latin original. This was exaggerāre, a compound formed from the intensive prefix exand aggerāre ‘pile up’ (a derivative of agger ‘heap’).
exaggerate (v.)
1530s, "to pile up, accumulate," from Latin exaggeratus, past participle of exaggerare "heighten, amplify, magnify," literally "to heap, pile, load, fill," from ex- "thoroughly" (see ex-) + aggerare "heap up, accumulate," figuratively "amplify, magnify," from agger (genitive aggeris) "heap," from aggerere "bring together, carry toward," from assimilated form of ad- "to, toward" (see ad-) + gerere "carry" (see gest). Sense of "overstate" first recorded in English 1560s. Related: Exaggerated; exaggerating.
实用例句
1. There could be more unrest, but I wouldn't exaggerate the problems.
可能会有更大的动荡，不过我想也不必夸大问题。
来自柯林斯例句
2. A painter may exaggerate or distort shapes and forms.
画家可能会对线条和形状进行夸大或扭曲。
来自柯林斯例句
3. These figures exaggerate the loss of competitiveness.
这些数字夸大了竞争力的丧失。
来自柯林斯例句
4. Don't exaggerate.
别夸张。
来自柯林斯例句
5. This chap likes to exaggerate and is good at nothing but boasting.
