in Rhetoric, a kind of hyperbole, by which things are augmented or amplified by saying more than the truth, either as to good or bad.

in Painting, a method by which the artist, in representing things, changes them too much, or makes them too strong, either in respect of the design or the colouring. It differs from caricaturing, inasmuch as the latter perverts or gives a turn to the features of a face, or the figure, which they have not; whereas exaggeration only heightens or improves what they had.