What does embroider mean?
To embroider is to decorate fabric by sewing patterns, pictures, or lettering onto it using coloured threads, typically with a needle worked through the material stitch by stitch. The word also has an established figurative use: to embroider a story is to embellish it with invented or exaggerated details that make it more colourful but less strictly true. The literal sense appears most often in descriptions of clothing, household linens, and traditional craftwork, where embroidery signals care, skill, and often luxury — a garment may be described as richly embroidered to convey its value. The figurative sense usually carries a gentle warning about reliability: someone who embroiders their accounts of events may be entertaining company, but not a precise witness. Derived forms include the noun embroidery (both the craft itself and the finished work), the agent noun embroiderer, and the participial adjective embroidered. The verb is standard in both British and American English and suits registers from everyday speech to formal description.
verbTo decorate fabric with needlework using stitches of coloured thread or yarn, forming patterns or pictures. Figuratively, to embellish an account or story with invented or exaggerated details.
- To decorate cloth by stitching coloured thread into patterns or designs.
- To add invented or exaggerated details to a story or account to make it more interesting.
"She spent the winter embroidering a floral design onto the tablecloth."
"The bride's gown was hand-embroidered with tiny pearls and ivy leaves."
"He tended to embroider his fishing stories until the trout grew to monstrous size."
The word 'embroider' comes from French for a border — because before it was stitched, embroidery began as a decorative edge.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of embroider
Embroider comes from Middle English, borrowed via Anglo-Norman from Old French 'embrouder' or 'enbroider', formed from the prefix 'en-' (in, on) plus 'broder', meaning to stitch or decorate. The French verb is related to 'brode', meaning edge or border, so the original idea is of decorating a border or surface. It entered English in the late Middle Ages, and the figurative sense of embellishing a narrative developed later, well established by the early modern period.
Related word forms
How embroider is actually used
The literal sense is neutral in register; the figurative sense often carries a mild implication of dishonesty or self-flattering exaggeration. Both transitive uses are common, and the passive ('was embroidered') is frequent in descriptions of garments.
Easily confused with embroider
Embroidered means decorated with needlework (or figuratively embellished), while embroiled means deeply involved in conflict or trouble.