Sample sentences for ELABORATE

3 meanings

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1 —as in:
elaborate on your plan

Definition

add details or explain in detail

Please elaborate on the reasons you think this is the best plan.

elaborate = explain in detail

Other Uses (with this meaning)

As we talked, she elaborated on her idea

elaborated = added details

"Yes," Sue said, and did not elaborate.
Stephen King -- Carrie

elaborate = add details

"Just answer the question. Don't elaborate."
J.D. Robb -- Glory in Death

elaborate = add details

When he spoke, his voice was steady, like a professor elaborating on a subject he taught.
Nicholas Sparks -- The Lucky One

elaborating = explaining in detail

She didn't elaborate any further, and I knew right then that she was holding something back, something that she couldn't tell me, something that made her sad as well.
Nicholas Sparks -- A Walk to Remember

elaborate = add details

"Good," Professeur Cole says. "More. Elaborate."
Stephanie Perkins -- Anna and the French Kiss

elaborate = add more detail

He didn't elaborate.
Kiera Cass -- The Selection

elaborate = add detail (to what had been said)

Should I elaborate?
John Green -- Turtles All the Way Down

elaborate = add details

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.
Sharon Creech -- Walk Two Moons

elaborate = tell more details

Dictionary / pronunciation — Google^®Dictionary / more samples — Oxford^® US Dictionary list — Onelook.com^®

2 —as in:
an elaborate design

Definition

having details and complexity — sometimes fancy or ornate

It's part of her elaborate plan for getting accepted at Harvard.

elaborate = complicated

Other Uses (with this meaning)

Their culture has elaborate wedding ceremonies.

elaborate = with many details or features

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

elaborate = special due to added detail or features

It has an elaborate lace pattern.

elaborate = with complicated detail

we spent a lot of time concocting elaborate plans that we never had the nerve to carry out.
Jill McCorkle -- Ferris Beach

elaborate = detailed or complex

Other versions were much more elaborate, full of descriptions and scraps of dialogue.
Tim O'Brien -- The Things They Carried

elaborate = detailed and complex

At first she thought it had all been some elaborate joke,
J.D. Robb -- Immortal in Death

elaborate = complicated

She wore a blue silk afternoon dress, and he was disappointed at first that she had not put on something more elaborate.
F. Scott Fitzgerald -- Winter Dreams

elaborate = fancy (a more special design)

A simple face-mask and oxygen set would take care of that: there was no need for anything elaborate.
Arthur C. Clarke -- Childhood's End

elaborate = complex

Very elaborate, the costume of Punchinello-ruffles and frills, a hump, a high hat.
Agatha Christie -- Early Cases Of Hercule Poirot

elaborate = having many complex details

Dictionary / pronunciation — Google^®Dictionary / more samples — Oxford^® US Dictionary list — Onelook.com^®

3 —as in:
an elaborate wink

Definition

to exaggerate an action

He gave her a slow elaborate wink.

elaborate = exaggerated

Other Uses (with this meaning)

He walked with an elaborate swagger.

elaborate = exaggerated

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.
W. Somerset Maugham -- Of Human Bondage

elaborately = in an exaggerated manner

They are the more popular crowd at high school and every evening about half-past seven they gather to stand talking together with elaborate unconcern, while in actuality they are sharply watching the cars going by to see what fellows and girls are out together; they watch to see who is having a Coke with whom and to report any violations on the part of the girls who are supposed to be going steady.
Maureen Daly -- Seventeenth Summer

elaborate = exaggerated

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

elaborate = exaggerated

Brinker turned elaborately toward him.
John Knowles -- A Separate Peace

elaborately = in an exaggerated manner

[Nick describing Gatsby:] ...I was looking at an elegant young rough-neck, a year or two over thirty, whose elaborate formality of speech just missed being absurd.
F. Scott Fitzgerald -- The Great Gatsby

elaborate = exaggerated

Elaborately casual, they start sauntering off as Krupke appears.
Arthur Laurents and Stephen Sondheim -- Westside Story

elaborately = in an exaggerated manner

Brinker began talking to him in the elaborately casual manner of someone being watched.
John Knowles -- A Separate Peace

elaborately = exaggeratedly

I turned around with elaborate resignation.
John Knowles -- A Separate Peace

elaborate = exaggerated

Dictionary / pronunciation — Google^®Dictionary / more samples — Oxford^® US Dictionary list — Onelook.com^®

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