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over-egg the pudding. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
over-egg the pudding, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say
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English
Etymology
English origin, mid-19th c.
Verb
over-egg the pudding (third-person singular simple present over-eggs the pudding, present participle over-egging the pudding, simple past and past participle over-egged the pudding)
- To embellish too much, to exaggerate.
- Synonym: gild the lily
1845, Robert Smith Surtees, chapter XVI, in Hillingdon Hall, published 1888, page 161:The toast was drunk with tremendous applause, Mr. Jorrocks acting as fugleman—“but as we mustn't over-egg the pudding,” as the Yorkshire farmers say, we will reserve the other proceedings of the evening for another chapter.
1960 June 22, The Earl of Arran, “The Newspapers”, in parliamentary debates (House of Lords), column 471:Our established Press bosses are no fools. They know the risks, and they will be careful not to over-egg the pudding.
2009, Virginia Ironside, The Virginia Monologues, Penguin UK, →ISBN:If you really want to over-egg the pudding, you can, a month or so after the funeral, organize a memorial service.
2010, Alan Bennett, “Introduction”, in The Complete Talking Heads, Picador, →ISBN, page 32:Adverbs too (‘she remarked, tersely’) seem to over-egg the pudding or else acquire undue weight in the mouth of a supposedly artless narrator.
Derived terms
References