elaborate

Formselaborates, elaborating, elaborated

1. 1
   adjective

   Complex and detailed, with many carefully worked-out parts; sophisticated in design or planning.

   The heist required an elaborate scheme involving three separate teams and months of planning.

   Bees communicate through an elaborate dance that signals both distance and direction.

   Similarcomplex, detailed, intricate, complicated, sophisticated

   Oppositesimple

   Note

   Behind the adjective is a Latin participle, ēlabōrātus, "worked out," built from ē- "out, fully" and labor "work." An elaborate thing is one that labor has been spent on. The word entered English in 1575. It compares with more and most (more elaborate, most elaborate) rather than with -er and -est. Complexity is not clarity, either: a long, elaborate description can impress and still leave the reader no wiser.

2. 2
   verbintransitive

   To go into greater detail, expanding on a statement or idea with further explanation.

   When pressed by reporters, the senator declined to elaborate.

   She elaborated on her proposal during the second half of the meeting.

   Similarexpand, expound, enlarge

   Note

   The intransitive verb of conversation takes on or upon before the thing being expanded (elaborate on the plot). It can also stand alone, often in a request or a refusal: would you care to elaborate?, declined to elaborate. That bare use marks this sense, because the transitive "work out" verb needs a direct object. You elaborate a plan, but you elaborate on a remark.

3. 3
   verbtransitive

   To develop something in greater detail or complexity; to work out fully.

   The committee will elaborate the proposal before the board votes on it.

   The composer elaborated a simple folk melody into a full symphony.

   Similardevelop, expand, refine

   Oppositesimplify

   Note

   Here the verb stays closest to its Latin root: to elaborate a scheme is to work it out, which is exactly what ēlabōrātus meant. Its objects are plans, doctrines and notions. The 1871 article "Bismarck" in All the Year Round has a statesman elaborate "his scheme of reform." The verb also sits easily in the passive, as when Irene Silverblatt (2009) writes that a notion "was first elaborated in Europe."

4. 4
   adjective

   Intricate and fancy in style; flashy or showy, with rich ornamental detail.

   The ballroom was hung with elaborate chandeliers dripping with crystal.

   His elaborate signature took up half the page, full of loops and flourishes.

   Similarornate, fancy, intricate, showy, flamboyant

   Oppositeplain, simple

   Note

   Where the "complex" meaning counts a thing's parts, this one weighs its decoration. Robert W. Chambers's The Younger Set (1907) calls a new house "a big elaborate limestone affair," then lists lace-hung casements and burnished bronze foliations, ornament laid on the surface. Its neighbors flashy and showy can tip the word toward mild disapproval, while intricate keeps it admiring.

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