All 18 Uses
elaborate
in
A Gentleman in Moscow
(Edited)
- He admired the painted panels of the little dining room and the elaborate brass mechanics that allowed one to secure the double doors of the bedroom.
p. 12.9elaborate = having details and complexity
- The Count elaborated.
p. 50.3elaborated = explained in more detail
- They belonged in an age of elaborate artifice and base superstition—when a lucky few dined on cutlets of veal and the majority endured in ignorance.
p. 83.7elaborate = complicated
- No longer an art of quatrains and dactyls and elaborate tropes, our poetry has become an art of action.
p. 86.2
- The Count's assertion had seemed so axiomatic that he had not prepared an elaboration.
p. 92.9elaboration = explanation with more detail
- The chef raises his chopper again and points its tip, but before he can elaborate, that door which separates Emile's kitchen from the rest of the world swings open.
p. 176.5elaborate = explain in more detail
- Nina had told her comrades that she would only be a minute, but as she elaborated on the work that lay ahead, she seemed to forget that they were still standing on the other side of the potted palm.
p. 186.6elaborated = explained in more detail
- 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.
p. 214.7elaboration = anything added
- As Sofia considered this, the Count leaned forward, ready to elaborate on the matter to the smallest detail.
p. 238.8elaborate = explain more
- Establishing their shop in Paris in 1775, the Breguets were quickly known the world over not only for the precision of their chronometers (that is, the accuracy of their clocks), but for the elaborate means by which their clocks could signal the passage of time.
p. 244.5elaborate = complex
- In his persuasive fashion, Osip had argued that during the Depression, Hollywood had undermined the inevitable forces of revolution by means of its elaborate chicanery.
p. 299.6elaborate = complex and detailed
- Given the Count's expression of curiosity, the young man elaborated: "For the time being, there are a lot of buildings being built in Moscow, but little need for architects."
p. 330.1elaborated = explained in more detail
- So, let us not get bogged down with elaborate designs or bow to aesthetic vanities.
p. 330.7 *elaborate = complex
- But before the Count could elaborate, Audrius returned.
p. 334.3elaborate = say more about it
- Only, under the floor of this restaurant was an elaborate mechanics of axles, cogs, and gears; and jutting from an outside wall was a giant crank, at the turn of which, each of the restaurant's chairs would pirouette like a ballerina on a music box, then spin around the space until they came to a stop at an entirely different table.
p. 337.6elaborate = complex and detailed
- As Katerina still looked confused, the Count elaborated.
p. 368.9 *elaborated = explained in more detail
- So, the Count elaborated.
p. 386.4
- At five o'clock that afternoon, in a nicely appointed office of the Kremlin (with a view of the lilacs in the Alexander Gardens, no less), the Chief Administrator of a special branch of the country's elaborate security apparatus sat behind his desk reviewing a file.
p. 455.9elaborate = complex and detailed
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 ornateDepending 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
- more complicated than necessary in a bad way
-
(3)
(elaborate as in: an elaborate wink) to exaggerate an actionAt 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)