Literary notes about elaborate (AI summary)
The word "elaborate" is employed in literature to evoke a sense of intricate detail and refined complexity in both physical descriptions and abstract ideas. It can depict richly ornamented settings or objects—for instance, the detailed carvings on mirrors and frames that evoke an air of bygone elegance [1]—or describe extensive ceremonial practices that speak to an underlying cultural sophistication [2]. At the same time, authors use it to characterize the unfolding of complex ideas or arguments, as when a philosophical explanation unfolds in carefully constructed stages [3] or even in declarations of state with layered rhetoric [4]. In each instance, "elaborate" brings forward the notion of being meticulously detailed and artfully composed, adding depth and richness to the narrative.
- In the spaces between the windows there were mirrors in elaborate white and gilt frames, of old-fashioned carving.
— from The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky - The ceremony was a very elaborate one, and is fully described by Sir James Balfour in a MS., now in the Advocates' Library.
— from A Complete Guide to Heraldry by Arthur Charles Fox-Davies - He then proceeds to give another and more elaborate explanation of the whole passage.
— from Protagoras by Plato - A more elaborate Declaration followed on June 23d, known as the proclamation establishing the “revolutionary” government.
— from The American Occupation of the Philippines 1898-1912 by James H. Blount
