The Oxford Thesaurus An A-Z Dictionary of Synonyms - elaborate adj.

1) detailed, painstaking, meticulous, punctilious, comprehensive, thorough, complete, exhaustive, intricate, involved, minute, precise, exact: The escape had been worked out in elaborate detail. 2) complicated, complex, convoluted, ornate, fancy, Byzantine, laborious, laboured, extravagant, showy; ornamented, decorated, baroque, rococo, busy, fussy, gingerbread: We marvelled at the elaborate mosaics. His plan is too elaborate and should be simplified. --v. 3) ornament, decorate, complicate, embellish, garnish, adorn: Later craftsmen elaborated the earlier Greek motifs. 4) enlarge, expand (upon or on) , expatiate, develop, cultivate, flesh out, enhance, refine, enrich, improve, better, ameliorate, emend, polish: Later on, I shall elaborate on the recruitment methods we used.