to decorate
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to decorate
To make something (e.g., a room or object) more beautiful and festive by adding decorations.
Zu Weihnachten schmücken wir das ganze Haus mit Lichtern und Girlanden.
At Christmas, we decorate the whole house with lights and garlands.
to adorn oneself with
To take credit for other people's merits or successes in order to appear in a better light. Usually used disparagingly in the expression 'sich mit fremden Federn schmücken' (to adorn oneself with borrowed plumes).
Der Abteilungsleiter schmückt sich gerne mit den Ideen seiner Mitarbeiter.
The department head likes to adorn himself with his employees' ideas.
to embellish
To make a story or report more interesting by adding invented or exaggerated details; to embellish.
Er neigt dazu, seine Reiseberichte mit abenteuerlichen Details zu schmücken.
He tends to embellish his travel reports with adventurous details.
The verb 'schmücken' (to decorate) is closely related to the noun 'der Schmuck' (jewelry, decoration). This connection helps you understand the basic meaning of decorating.
Sie trägt selten Schmuck.
She rarely wears jewelry.
You can recognize the meaning of 'schmücken' (to decorate) from the object: a physical object (house, tree) is literally decorated. An abstract thing (story, report) is embellished. A reflexive pronoun ('sich') points to taking credit for someone else's achievements.
Wir schmücken den Weihnachtsbaum.
We decorate the Christmas tree.
When you decorate something, the structure is: 'etwas (Akkusativ) schmücken' (to decorate something in the accusative). What you decorate it with is added using the preposition 'mit' and the dative.
Die Kinder schmücken das Fenster mit selbstgemalten Bildern.
The children decorate the window with pictures they painted themselves.
The figurative meaning is always used reflexively: 'sich schmücken mit' (to adorn oneself with). A very well-known idiom is 'sich mit fremden Federn schmücken', which means to pass off someone else's achievement as one's own.
Es ist nicht fair, sich mit fremden Federn zu schmücken.
It isn't fair to adorn oneself with borrowed plumes.
to exaggerate
Übertreiben presents a report as bigger, more important, or worse than it really is. Schmücken means, in this context, making a story more interesting by adding invented or exaggerated details. Schmücken focuses more on making the story more vivid, while Übertreiben focuses on the deviation from reality.
Paul schmückte den Bericht über den kleinen Streit mit erfundenen Einzelheiten.
Paul embellished the report about the minor argument with invented details.
Paul übertrieb den kleinen Streit und nannte ihn eine Katastrophe.
Paul exaggerated the minor argument and called it a catastrophe.
