elaborate

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English

Etymology

1575, from Late Latin ēlabōrātus (“worked out”), past participle of ēlabōrō (“to work out”), from ē- (“out, forth, fully”) + labor (“work, toil, exertion”). More at e-, labour.

Pronunciation

  • Adjective: ĭlă'bərət, IPA(key): /ɪˈlæbəɹət/
    • Audio (US):(file)
  • Verb: ĭlă'bərāt, IPA(key): /ɪˈlæbəɹeɪt/

Adjective

elaborate (comparative more elaborate, superlative most elaborate)

  1. Complex, detailed, or sophisticated.
    After reading a long, elaborate description, I was impressed but no wiser.
  2. Intricate, fancy, flashy, or showy.
    I stared for hours at the elaborate pattern in the rug.
    • 1907 August, Robert W[illiam] Chambers, chapter I, in The Younger Set, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, →OCLC:
      The house was a big elaborate limestone affair, evidently new. Winter sunshine sparkled on lace-hung casement, on glass marquise, and the burnished bronze foliations of grille and door.

Derived terms

Translations

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Verb

elaborate (third-person singular simple present elaborates, present participle elaborating, simple past and past participle elaborated)

  1. (transitive) Тo develop in detail or complexity.
    Synonym: work out
    • 1871, “Bismarck”, in All the Year Round, volume 5, page 129:
      […] by the time of the subsequent coronation, when the Prussian king put the crown on his own head in child-like belief of the obsolete doctrine called divine right, the untiring statesman had elaborated his scheme of reform.
    • 2009, Irene Silverblatt, “Foreword”, in Andrew B. Fisher, Matthew D. O'hara, editors, Imperial Subjects: Race and Identity in Colonial Latin America, page xi:
      The notion of blood purity was first elaborated in Europe, where it was used to separate Old Christians from Spain’s New Christians—women and men of Jewish and Muslim origin whose ancestors had converted to Christianity.
  2. (intransitive, sometimes followed by the prepositions on or upon) To expand/enlarge in detail.
    What do you mean you didn't come home last night? Would you care to elaborate?
    Could you elaborate on the plot for your novel for me?

Derived terms

Translations

References

  • “elaborate”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

Ido

Pronunciation

Verb

elaborate

  1. adverbial present passive participle of elaborar

Interlingua

Participle

elaborate

  1. past participle of elaborar

Italian

Etymology 1

Adjective

elaborate

  1. feminine plural of elaborato

Participle

elaborate f pl

  1. feminine plural of elaborato

Etymology 2

Verb

elaborate

  1. inflection of elaborare:
    1. second-person plural present indicative
    2. second-person plural imperative

Latin

Pronunciation

Verb

ēlabōrāte

  1. second-person plural present active imperative of ēlabōrō

Spanish

Verb

elaborate

  1. second-person singular voseo imperative of elaborar combined with te
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