laying it on thick
Piling on praise
Laying it on thick is exaggerating praise, flattery, sympathy, or emotion beyond what the situation warrants.
The image is of spreading something—butter, paint—more generously than needed: He was laying it on thick with the compliments, hoping she'd forgive him.
Can also describe overdone performances or excessive sentimentality.
- guilt-trippingInducing remorse deliberately
- sob storyPitiful excuse for sympathy
- crocodile tearsInsincere show of sadness
- theatricalityExaggerated, showy manner
- hyperboleRhetorical extreme exaggeration
adulation · stretching the truth · praise · fakery · sugarcoating · embellishment · sycophancy · overstatement · compliments · melodrama · over the top · buttering up · emotional blackmail · aggrandizement · blowing smoke · amplification · sweet-talking · fawning
- exaggerationhyperbole, overstatement, exaggeration, magnification, amplification
- actingacting, act, performing, playacting, actor
laying it on thickunderstating
Representing as less significant
downplaying · underplaying · holding back · soft-pedaling · minimizing
thick, laying, underlying, layering, arraying, relaying, overlying, belaying