over-egg the pudding

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)

1. 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)‎^[1], 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

• over-egg
• over-egged