elaborate

in a sentence

grouped by contextual meaning

As we talked, she elaborated on her idea

He doesn't elaborate.  (source) Veronica Roth, Divergent, 2011

When I mentioned about Ben asking where my mother was and my saying that she was in Lewiston, but that I didn't want to elaborate, Gram and Gramps looked at each other.  (source) Sharon Creech, Walk Two Moons, 1994

He elaborated without encouragement, citing the advantages of Devon's physical hardening program and of a high school diploma when he did in good time reach basic training.  (source) John Knowles, A Separate Peace, 1959

Chief Pike got my attention only because of what a ridiculous question he asked—and how much more absurd was his elaboration on his question!†  (source) John Irving, A Prayer for Owen Meany, 1989

But before the Count could elaborate, Audrius returned.  (source) Amor Towles, A Gentleman in Moscow, 2016

"I wonder if you'd like to come back to London with us?" he asked, making the first move in a campaign whose strategy he had been secretly elaborating ever since, in the little house, he had realized who the "father" of this young savage must be.  (source) Aldous Huxley, Brave New World, 1932

Until she elaborates.†  (source) Gayle Forman, Where She Went, 2011

Billy finally managed to get his news in edgewise during my continuing elaborations.†  (source) Homer Hickam, October Sky, 1998

Her response was to nod politely at the perilous elaborateness of it all; to nod in the knowledge that she would never be able to get where she wanted to go.†  (source) ZZ Packer, Drinking Coffee Elsewhere, 2000

These three remarks went unelaborated upon.†  (source) Jane Smiley, A Thousand Acres, 1991

But the idea of this dried-up pedant, this elaborator of small explanations about as important as the surplus stock of false antiquities kept in a vendor's back chamber, having first got this adorable young creature to marry him, and then passing his honeymoon away from her, groping after his mouldy futilities (Will was given to hyperbole)—this sudden picture stirred him with a sort of comic disgust: he was divided between the impulse to laugh aloud and the equally unseasonable impulse to burst into scornful invective.†  (source) George Eliot, Middlemarch, 1872

These three had elaborated old Major's teachings into a complete system of thought, to which they gave the name of Animalism.  (source) George Orwell, Animal Farm, 1945

Their culture has elaborate wedding ceremonies.

It is an elaborate remake of her independent film, but this time with a Hollywood budget.

It has an elaborate lace pattern.

Sorrento had been playing an elaborate mind game with me.  (source) Ernest Cline, Ready Player One, 2011

Whether disguised as Ben Franklin or a lowly drummer boy, he always acted a role in the elaborately staged pageants which he wrote and directed.  (source) Ellen Raskin, The Westing Game, 1978

Most armies needed three months because they had to memorize dozens of elaboration formations.  (source) Orson Scott Card, Ender's Game, 1977

I was a little shocked at the elaborateness of the lie.  (source) F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby, 1925

Grant was surprised: the construction was elaborate.  (source) Michael Crichton, Jurassic Park, 1993

A fire was crackling under an elaborately carved mantelpiece ahead of them, and several Slytherins were silhouetted around it in high-backed chairs.  (source) J. K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, 1998

Like a scientist's assistant, his lot was simply to record the data and then relay a summary to his superiors without embellishment or elaboration.  (source) Amor Towles, A Gentleman in Moscow, 2016

Have you noticed the more you try not to think, the more elaborate your thinking episodes get? While trying not to think, I spent twenty minutes on this fascinating question: if you could have one miracle from the Bible happen to you, what would it be?  (source) Sue Monk Kidd, The Secret Life of Bees, 2002

He was mad, as if I'd elaborately planned getting sick.  (source) Sarah Dessen, Someone Like You, 1998

And because beavers have built a network of elaborate dams across this creek, the route leads directly through a three-acre expanse of standing water.  (source) Jon Krakauer, Into the Wild, 1996

Count Olaf had a great number of very long speeches, which he performed with elaborate gestures and facial expressions.  (source) Lemony Snicket, The Bad Beginning, 1999

I turned around with elaborate resignation.  (source) John Knowles, A Separate Peace, 1959

Ralph believed that everything he said had to be epic, shocking, and elaborate.  (source) Bryan Stevenson, Just Mercy, 2014

The smiling slender man in his early thirties, with his protruding ears, balding head, and minuscule glasses, gave an elaborate bow.  (source) Corrie ten Boom, The Hiding Place, 1971

Elaborately casual, they start sauntering off as Krupke appears.  (source) Arthur Laurents and Stephen Sondheim, Westside Story, 1957

Brother isn't really crazy yet he—he's an elaborate neurotic.  (source) Lorraine Hansberry, A Raisin in the Sun, 1959

She coughed elaborately at the door so that Philip should have time to compose himself, she felt that he would be humiliated if she came upon him in the midst of his tears, then she rattled the door handle.  (source) W. Somerset Maugham, Of Human Bondage, 1915

I had clearly gotten the best of her, so I sobered to an elaborate caricature of humility.  (source) Katherine Paterson, Jacob Have I Loved, 1981

Brinker began talking to him in the elaborately casual manner of someone being watched.  (source) John Knowles, A Separate Peace, 1959

She picked up an ordinary beach shell and looked at it with elaborate interest.  (source) J. D. Salinger, A Perfect Day for Bananafish, 1948

He coughed and then elaborately refilled and lit his pipe.  (source) Katherine Paterson, Jacob Have I Loved, 1981

But Lennie made an elaborate pantomime of innocence.  (source) John Steinbeck, Of Mice and Men, 1937

Brinker turned elaborately toward him.  (source) John Knowles, A Separate Peace, 1959