The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

Elaboration \E*lab`o*ra"tion\, n. [L. elaboratio: cf. F.
   ['e]laboration.]
   1. The act or process of producing or refining with labor;
      improvement by successive operations; refinement.
      [1913 Webster]

   2. (Physiol.) The natural process of formation or
      assimilation, performed by the living organs in animals
      and vegetables, by which a crude substance is changed into
      something of a higher order; as, the elaboration of food
      into chyme; the elaboration of chyle, or sap, or tissues.
      [1913 Webster]

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):

elaboration
    n 1: addition of extra material or illustration or clarifying
         detail; "a few remarks added in amplification and defense";
         "an elaboration of the sketch followed" [syn:
         amplification, elaboration]
    2: the result of improving something; "he described a refinement
       of this technique" [syn: refinement, elaboration]
    3: a discussion that provides additional information [syn:
       expansion, enlargement, elaboration]
    4: marked by elaborately complex detail [syn: elaborateness,
       elaboration, intricacy, involution]
    5: developing in intricate and painstaking detail [syn:
       elaboration, working out]

Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0:

120 Moby Thesaurus words for "elaboration":
   accomplishment, adjunct, adornment, advance, advancement,
   amplification, architecture, arrangement, assembly, beautification,
   blossoming, building, casting, color, color patterns, composition,
   construction, conversion, copy, crafting, craftsmanship, creation,
   critique, cultivation, decor, decoration, development,
   developmental change, devising, dilation, dwelling upon,
   embellishment, emblazonment, emblazonry, embroidery, enlargement,
   erection, evolution, evolutionary change, evolvement, evolving,
   expansion, expatiation, explication, extraction, fabrication,
   fashioning, flourish, flower arrangement, flowering, formation,
   forming, formulation, framing, furniture arrangement, furtherance,
   garnish, garnishment, garniture, going over, gradual change,
   growing, growth, handicraft, handiwork, harvesting, illumination,
   iteration, machining, making, manufacture, manufacturing,
   maturation, milling, mining, molding, natural development,
   natural growth, nonviolent change, ornament, ornamentation,
   perfection, practicing, prefabrication, preparation, processing,
   producing, progress, progression, raising, reaffirmation, recap,
   recapitulation, recital, recountal, recounting, refinement,
   refining, rehash, rehearsal, reissue, reiteration, reprint,
   restatement, resume, retelling, review, ripening, rise, seasoning,
   shaping, smelting, summary, summing up, trim, trimming, unfolding,
   window dressing, working-out, workmanship