Embroider
verb ·Moderate ·High school level
Definitions
- 1 To stitch a decorative design on fabric with needle and thread of various colours.
- 2 add details to wordnet
- 3 To add imaginary detail to a narrative to make it more interesting or acceptable. figuratively
- 4 decorate with needlework wordnet
Example
More examples"I don't know how to sew or embroider."
Etymology
From Middle English embrouderen, frequentative of embrouden (“to decorate, embroider”), equivalent to embroid + -er. Middle English embrouden itself comes from Anglo-Norman embrouder, from Old French embrosder (“to embroider”), ultimately of Germanic origin, though the exact pathway is uncertain. Possibly an intensive of Old French brosder, brouder (compare Norman broudaïr), from Gothic *𐌱𐍂𐌿𐌶𐌳𐍉𐌽 (*bruzdōn), related to English bristle and brad. Alternatively, perhaps from Frankish *anbroʀdōn (“to embroider, stitch”), related to Old High German anabrortōn (“to embroider”), Old English onbryrdan (“to prick, incite”).
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.