All 7 Uses

elaborate
in
Ferris Beach
(Edited)

There were no vacancies in Whispering Pines, though my father had once drawn up an elaborate plan of how he could skim a measley two yards off our side yard and sell something like twenty new plots.
Chpt 3

elaborate = having details and complexity
we spent a lot of time concocting elaborate plans that we never had the nerve to carry out.
Chpt 3 *

elaborate = detailed or complex
The teas were always elaborate and the women were expected to dress for the occasion, mohair or Ultrasuede, whatever happened to be the thing.
Chpt 4

elaborate = having details and complexity
It was not my taste in decorations either but I loved seeing them; I loved the nerve behind doing something so elaborately.
Chpt 6

elaborately = with much detail or complexity
He mouthed the words, a pencil in his hand as he drew an elaborate greenhouse that he could never afford to really build.
Chpt 21

elaborate = having details and complexity
He had gotten some clothes, some money, but didn't elaborate.
Chpt 21 *

elaborate = tell more details
"I heard from her a week ago," my father said, pencil in hand as he doodled an elaborate building.
Chpt 21

elaborate = having details and complexity

Definitions:

(1) (elaborate as in: elaborate on your plan)
add details or explain in detail
(2) (elaborate as in: an elaborate design)
having details and complexity -- sometimes fancy or ornate
Depending upon it's context, this sense of elaborate can additionally imply that details make something either:
- more special than others of its kind in a good way
or:
- more complicated than necessary in a bad way
(3) (elaborate as in: an elaborate wink)
to exaggerate an action

At times, this sense of elaborate can further imply that an action was exaggerated by prolonging it (performing it more slowly than normal).
(4) (meaning too rare to warrant focus)