To enlarge beyond bounds or the truth:
— Tended to romanticize and exaggerate this `gracious Old South' imagery.

synonyms: amplify, hyperbolise, hyperbolize, magnify, overdraw, overstate.

Roget 544: be false etc. adj., be a liar etc. 548; speak falsely etc. adv.; tell a lie etc. 546; lie, fib; lie like a trooper; swear false, forswear, perjure oneself, bear false witness.    misstate, misquote, miscite^†, misreport, misrepresent; belie, falsify, pervert, distort; put a false construction upon etc. (misinterpret); prevaricate, equivocate, quibble; palter, palter to the understanding; repondre en Normand [Fr.]; trim, shuffle, fence, mince the truth, beat about the bush, blow hot and cold, play fast and loose.    garble, gloss over, disguise, give a color to; give a gloss, put a gloss, put false coloring upon; color, varnish, cook, dress up, embroider; varnish right and puzzle wrong; exaggerate etc. 549; blague^†.    invent, fabricate; trump up, get up; force, fake, hatch, concoct; romance etc. (imagine) 515; cry 'wolf!'.    dissemble, dissimulate; feign, assume, put on, pretend, make believe; play possum; play false, play a double game; coquet; act a part, play a part; affect etc. 855; simulate, pass off for; counterfeit, sham, make a show of; malinger; say the grapes are sour.    cant, play the hypocrite, sham Abraham, faire pattes de velours, put on the mask, clean the outside of the platter, lie like a conjuror; hand out false colors, hold out false colors, sail under false colors; commend the poisoned chalice to the lips" [Macbeth]; ambiguas in vulgum spargere voces [Lat.]; deceive etc. 545.    ... show more

Roget 549: exaggerate, magnify, pile up, aggravate; amplify etc. (expand) 194; overestimate etc. 482; hyperbolize; overcharge, overstate, overdraw, overlay, overshoot the mark, overpraise; make over much, over the most of; strain, strain over a point; stretch, stretch a point; go great lengths; spin a long yarn; draw with a longbow, shoot with a longbow; deal in the marvelous.    out-Herod Herod, run riot, talk at random.    heighten, overcolor^†; color highly, color too highly; broder^†; flourish; color etc. (misrepresent) 544; puff etc. (boast) 884.    ... show more

Roget 933: flatter, praise to the skies, puff; wheedle, cajole, glaver^†, coax; fawn upon, faun upon; humor, gloze, soothe, pet, coquet, slaver, butter; jolly [U.S.]; bespatter, beslubber^†, beplaster^†, beslaver^†; lay it on thick, overpraise; earwig, cog, collogue^†; truckle to, pander to, pandar to^†, suck up to, kiss the ass of [Vulg.], pay court to; court; creep into the good graces of, curry favor with, hang on the sleeve of; fool to the top of one's bent; lick the dust.    lay the flattering unction to one's soul, gild the pill, make things pleasant.    overestimate etc. 482; exaggerate etc. 549.    ... show more

Roget 35: increase, augment, add to, enlarge; dilate etc. (expand) 194; grow, wax, get ahead.    gain strength; advance; run up, shoot up; rise; ascend etc. 305; sprout etc. 194.    aggrandize; raise, exalt; deepen, heighten; strengthen; intensify, enhance, magnify, redouble; aggravate, exaggerate; exasperate, exacerbate; add fuel to the flame, oleum addere camino [Lat.], superadd etc. (add) 37; spread etc. (disperse) 73.    ... show more

Roget 482: overestimate, overrate, overvalue, overprize, overweigh, overreckon^†, overstrain, overpraise; eulogize; estimate too highly, attach too much importance to, make mountains of molehills, catch at straws; strain, magnify; exaggerate etc. 549; set too high a value upon; think much of, make much of, think too much of, make too much of; outreckon^†; panegyrize^†.    extol, extol to the skies; make the most of, make the best of, make the worst of; make two bites of a cherry.    have too high an opinion of oneself etc. (vanity) 880.    ... show more

Roget 194: become larger etc. (large) etc. 192; expand, widen, enlarge, extend, grow, increase, incrassate^†, swell, gather; fill out; deploy, take open order, dilate, stretch, distend, spread; mantle, wax; grow up, spring up; bud, bourgeon [Fr.], shoot, sprout, germinate, put forth, vegetate, pullulate, open, burst forth; gain flesh, gather flesh; outgrow; spread like wildfire, overrun.    be larger than; surpass etc. (be superior) 33.    render larger etc. (large) etc. 192; expand, spread, extend, aggrandize, distend, develop, amplify, spread out, widen, magnify, rarefy, inflate, puff, blow up, stuff, pad, cram; exaggerate; fatten.    ... show more

Roget 555: misrepresent, distort, overdraw, exaggerate, caricature, daub; burlesque, parody, travesty.   

Dutch: chargeren, hyperboliseren, kleuren, opblazen, opkloppen, oppijpen, overdrijven, overtrekken

Do something to an excessive degree.

synonym: overdo.

Roget 641: superabound, overabound^†; know no bounds, swarm; meet one at every turn; creep with, crawl with, bristle with; overflow; run over, flow over, well over, brim over; run riot; overrun, overstock, overlay, overcharge, overdose, overfeed, overburden, overload, overdo, overwhelm, overshoot the mark etc. (go beyond) 303; surcharge, supersaturate, gorge, glut, load, drench, whelm, inundate, deluge, flood; drug, drug the market; hepatize^†.    choke, cloy, accloy^†, suffocate; pile up, lay on thick; impregnate with; lavish etc. (squander) 818.    send coals to Newcastle, carry coals to Newcastle, carry owls to Athens^†; teach one's grandmother to suck eggs; pisces natare docere [Lat.]; kill the slain, gild refined gold," gild the lily," butter one's bread on both sides, put butter upon bacon; employ a steam engine to crack a nut etc. (waste) 638.    exaggerate etc. 549; wallow in roll in etc. (plenty) 639; remain on one's hands, hang heavy on hand, go a begging.    ... show more

Dutch: overdrijven