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We run into the same problem here we usually run into. We play around with related aspects of the thing we are after. A lot of things can be called exaggerating or overreacting without having anything at all to do with danger. It's kind of like:

Q: What word is it that describes a banana?

A: Yellow.

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The initial question seems a bit lame to me, perhaps more than is warranted.

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This is driving me crazy! (Yeah, yeah, short drive; I know!) I'm beginning to think there isn't one single word. I thought of malign, but like vilify it doesn't necessarily mean danger.
I want to say things like sinisterize.

What's the opposite of sugar-coat?

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Originally Posted By: Faldage
We run into the same problem here we usually run into. We play around with related aspects of the thing we are after. A lot of things can be called exaggerating or overreacting without having anything at all to do with danger.


Faldage, I meant overreacting to or exaggerating the danger of something, overstating it either accidentally or deliberately. I'm still trying to define what we are talking about rather than suggesting an answer to the question (since Candy vetoed my suggestions grin) . The focus of discussion seems to be on the danger, and I think that to answer the question more attention needs to be paid to the distortion of that danger.

Last edited by Tromboniator; 01/10/12 08:41 AM.
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Originally Posted By: Tromboniator
.... I'm still trying to define what we are talking about rather than suggesting an answer to the question (since Candy vetoed my suggestions grin) .


blush laugh

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In movies of course a dangerous action, mystery, suspense, tension or horror...is accompanied with 'suitable' dramatic music...so we 'know' whats coming!

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What's with these sentences? What is it?

Looking for a word that means depicting something as dangerous.
Looking for a word that means to depict something as being dangerous.

Looking for a word that means depicting something as fluffy.
Looking for a word that means to depict something as being fluffy.

Looking for a word that means depicting something as rough.
Looking for a word that means to depict something as being rough.

Each time I look at the question one way or the other I think it is odd, just odd.

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The second form of each is more formal than we US'n's tend to be, at least in speech. Most of us wouldn't say the word being. Though it is correct.

Hmm--does it help to set apart the phrase, as: Looking for a word that means 'to depict something as being dangerous'.

Also--more informal speech--all of these omit the "I am" that could/would/should begin the sentence--which really isn't a sentence without those words.

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Thanks for the effort Jackie, but that's not what I mean. I mean I understand the phrase but I don't understand the question. I think Faldage mentioned it rightly: something like a banana and
yellow, some pages back.

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Bran, Jackie is quite correct in saying that the two forms can be equivalent. However, in some contexts, they can have different connotations.
If something is 'dangerous', then that is its perpetual state: if it is 'being dangerous', then it isn't always thatb way, but is at the moment.


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