to adorn or embellish rhetorically, esp. with ornate language or fictitious details: He embroidered the account of the shipwreck to hold his listeners' interest.
–verb (used without object)
4.
to do embroidery.
5.
to add embellishments; exaggerate (often fol. by on or upon).
Origin: 1350–1400; em-1+ broider; r. ME embroderen, freq. of embroden < MF embro(u)der, equiv. to em-em-1+ OF brosder, deriv. of brosd < Gmc (see brad)
em·broi·der (ěm-broi'dər) v.
em·broi·dered, em·broi·der·ing, em·broi·ders
v.
tr.
To ornament with needlework: embroider a pillow cover.
To make by means of needlework: embroider a design on a bedspread.
To add embellishments or fanciful details to: embroider the truth.
v.
intr.
To make needlework.
To add embellishments or fanciful details.
[Middle English embrouderen, partly from embrouden (from brouden, broiden, braided, embroidered, from Old English brogden, past participle of bregdan, to weave; see braid) and partly from Old French embroder (en-, intensive pref.; see en-1 + broder, brosder, to embroiderof Germanic origin).] em·broi'der·er n.
c.1400, from Anglo-Norm. enbrouder, from en- "in" + broisder "embroider," from Frank. *brozdon, from P.Gmc. *bruzdajanan. Influenced by O.E. brogden, pp. of bregad "to weave" (see braid). First record of embroidery is 1393.
[em-broi-der] 
dər