Definition of EMBELLISHER

Choose the Right Synonym for embellish

adorn, decorate, ornament, embellish, beautify, deck, garnish mean to enhance the appearance of something by adding something unessential. adorn implies an enhancing by something beautiful in itself. a diamond necklace adorned her neck decorate suggests relieving plainness or monotony by adding beauty of color or design. decorate a birthday cake ornament and embellish imply the adding of something extraneous, ornament stressing the heightening or setting off of the original a white house ornamented with green shutters , embellish often stressing the adding of superfluous or adventitious ornament. embellish a page with floral borders beautify adds to embellish a suggestion of counterbalancing plainness or ugliness. will beautify the grounds with flower beds deck implies the addition of something that contributes to gaiety, splendor, or showiness. a house all decked out for Christmas garnish suggests decorating with a small final touch and is used especially in referring to the serving of food. an entrée garnished with parsley

Did You Know?

Like its synonyms adorn, ornament, and garnish, embellish means to make something beautiful by the addition of a decorative or fanciful feature. Traditionally, the word is used specifically to stress the addition of superfluous or adventitious ornament, as in "The printer embellished the page with a floral border." Embellish differs from its synonyms, however, in that it is sometimes used in a euphemistic way to refer to the inclusion of details that are not necessarily true to make a story sound more appealing. The word derives via Middle English from the Anglo-French verb embelir, from en- and bel ("beautiful").

Examples of embellish in a Sentence

a book embellished with colorful illustrations He embellished his speech with a few quotations.

Recent Examples on the Web The format for a plague column was fairly standard: a Doric or Corinthian column erected on top of a base and embellished with assorted statuary. — Los Angeles Times, "Commentary: U.S. should build a memorial ‘plague column’ for COVID-19, but where? Here’s an idea," 5 May 2020 Since 2011, various models of the watch have seen the rotor embellished with all matter of couture-like materials including pearls, feathers, woven silk threads and beetle shells. — Ming Liu, New York Times, "Personalization: From the Watch Dial to the Strap," 1 May 2020 The perfect cold-weather dish meets its ideal sidekick in a sweet potato given the Hasselback treatment and embellished with tarragon gremolata and hickory nut dukkah — a zesty mash of herbs and warm spices, respectively. — Tom Sietsema, Washington Post, "Nina May is dialed into diners’ desires in Logan Circle," 4 Mar. 2020 The Chiefs open each game with a cheerleader riding a horse named Warpaint, while hitting a giant, native-style drum embellished with the team's logo. — Leah Asmelash, CNN, "How the Kansas City Chiefs got their name, and why it's so controversial," 1 Feb. 2020 Hang a left and walk the 1.1-mile return leg that traces a ridgeline embellished with a major rock-art site and a wash with many more petroglyphs etched by the ancient Hohokam people who were active in the area from roughly 450 to 1450. — Mare Czinar, azcentral, "This is one of Phoenix's best loved hikes. Here's why," 8 Jan. 2020 Cardinal Durini, a man of arts and letters who lived here in the late 1700s, embellished it with an art collection and a library, and -hosted literary salons and concerts. — Wendy Perrin, Town & Country, "18 Jaw-Dropping Private Villas You Can Rent Around the World," 17 Oct. 2019 Today, their cavernous factory space, cluttered with 1930s-era sewing machines and piles of grosgrain ribbon to embellish hats, is now set up so staff are seated several meters apart to prevent infections. — Ivan Carvalho, Fortune, "Life in lockdown: How luxury designers in Italy’s fashion heartland are facing coronavirus," 13 Mar. 2020 But if Xi is using coronavirus to embellish his own credentials, in Moscow Putin is using it to execute both internal and external ambitions. — Nic Robertson, CNN, "Putin and Xi are using the coronavirus crisis to extend their control. Across the world, Trump struggles to keep up," 12 Mar. 2020

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'embellish.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.