embellishment (embelishment)

[= OF. (and F.) embelli ement; as embellish + -ment.] 1. The act of embellishing, or the state of being embellished. Endeavour a little at the Embellishment of your Stile. Steele, Tender Husband, ii. 1. The selection of their ground, and the embellishment of it. Pre scott . 2. Ornament; decoration; anything that adds beauty or elegance; that which renders anything tasteful or pleasing to the sense: as, rich dre es are embellishments of the person; virtue is an embellishment of the mind. Indeed the critic deserves our pity who cannot see that the formal circumstance of sitting silent seven days was a dramatic embellishment in the Eastern manner. War burton , Divine Legation, vi., notes. Painting and sculpture are such embellishments as are not without their use. Pococke , Description of the East, II. ii. 277. Wisdom, and discipline, and liberal arts, The embellishments of life. Add is on, Cato. IMG:content-0362.png:[blocks in formation]