Other forms: embellished, embellishing, embellishes
To embellish is to decorate, or to add invented details to a story. Embellish the account, richly embellished, embellish a dish.
The two senses share the idea of adding for effect, and the second is a polite word for exaggerating — embellishing a story is lying gently. In music, embellishment means added ornament. Note that the French means to make beautiful, from bel, beautiful, the same root as beauty.
1verbdecorateTo decorate something.
“The dress was embellished with tiny pearls around the neckline.”
2verbembellishTo add invented details to a story.
“He embellished the story of his fishing trip until the fish was the size of a shark.”
embellish is an adorning.
Old French embellir is en plus bel, beautiful, from Latin bellus. Beauty and belle come from the same beauty.
Old French
embellir
Middle English
embelishen
English, today
embellish
From Middle English embelishen, from Old French embellir, from em- + bel.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA
Practised in Sharper Verbs