overblown
/'ouvə'bloun/
Học thuậtThân thiện
Definition
- Adjective:
- Excessively inflated or exaggerated: Describing something that is made to seem more important, impressive, or dramatic than it really is.
- Past the peak of bloom; beginning to fade: Describing a flower that is fully open and starting to wilt or decay.
Examples of Usage
- Adjective (Exaggerated):
- Adjective (Past bloom):
Advanced Usage
- Used to describe rhetoric or language: Often applied to speech or writing that is pompous, bombastic, or full of empty grandeur.
- Used in a metaphorical sense: Can describe situations, fears, or reputations that have been exaggerated beyond reality.
Variants and Related Words
- Overblow (verb): To blow over or across; to blow away. (This is the rare, literal verb form from which the adjective is derived, but it is seldom used in modern English.)
- Overblownness (noun): The quality or state of being overblown. (This is a rarely used derived noun.)
Synonyms
- Exaggerated: Represented as larger, better, or worse than in reality.
- Bombastic: High-sounding but with little meaning; inflated.
- Grandiose: Impressive or magnificent in appearance or style, especially pretentiously so.
- Pompous: Affectedly grand, solemn, or self-important.
- Turgid: Swollen and distended or congested; (of language) pompous or bombastic.
Antonyms
- Understated: Presented or expressed in a subtle and effective way.
- Restrained: Characterized by reserve or moderation.
- Modest: Unassuming in the estimation of one's abilities or achievements.
Related Phrases and Idioms
- Overblown rhetoric: Language that is excessively elaborate and pretentious.
- Overblown reputation: A fame or notoriety that is greater than deserved.
Adjective
- past the stage of full bloom
- overblown roses
- puffed up with vanity
- a grandiloquent and boastful manner
- overblown oratory
- a pompous speech
- pseudo-scientific gobbledygook and pontifical hooey- Newsweek