in Rhetoric, a figure by which the truth and reality of things are either enlarged or diminished, exaggerated or depreciated.

An object uncommon in respect of size, that is either very great of its kind or very little, strikes us with surprise; and this emotion forces upon the mind a momentary conviction that the object is greater or less than it is in reality. The same effect precisely attends figurative grandeur or littleness; and hence arises the hyperbole, which expresses this momentary conviction. A writer, taking advantage of this natural delusion, enriches his description greatly by the hyperbole; and the reader, even in his coolest moments, relishes this figure, being sensible that it is the operation of nature upon a warm fancy.

It cannot have escaped observation, that a writer is generally more successful in magnifying by a hyperbole than in diminishing. The reason is, that a minute object contracts the mind, and fetters its powers of imagination; but the mind, dilated and inflamed with a grand object, moulds with great facility objects for its gratification. Longinus, treating a diminishing hyperbole, cites the following ludicrous thought from a comic poet: "He was owner of a bit of ground not larger than a Lacedemonian letter." But, for the reason now given, the hyperbole has far the greater force in magnifying objects.

Quintilian holds the hyperbole to be a natural figure: "For," says he, "not contented with truth, we naturally incline to augment or diminish beyond it; and for this reason the hyperbole is familiar even amongst the vulgar and illiterate;" and he adds, very justly, "that the hyperbole is then proper, when the object of itself exceeds the common measure."