hyperbole

noun

Etymology: From Middle English iperbole, yperbole, from Latin hyperbolē, from Ancient Greek ὑπερβολή (huperbolḗ, “excess, exaggeration”), from ὑπέρ (hupér, “above”) + βάλλω (bállō, “to throw”, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *gʷelH-). Doublet of hyperbola.

1. Deliberate or unintentional overstatement, particularly extreme overstatement.

   “Hyperbole soars too high, or creeps too low, Exceeds the truth, things wonderful to shew.”

   “The great staircase, however, may be termed, without much hyperbole, a feature of grandeur and magnificence.”

2. An instance or example of such overstatement.

   “[…]and when he ſpeakes, / 'Tis like a Chime a mending. With tearmes vnſquar' / Which from the tongue of roaring Typhon dropt, / Would ſeemes Hyperboles”

   “The honourable gentleman forces us to hear a good deal of this detestable rhetoric; and then he asks why, if the secretaries of the Nizam and the King of Oude use all these tropes and hyperboles, Lord Ellenborough should not indulge in the same sort of eloquence?”

3. A hyperbola.