Tropes of Overstatement, Understatement, and Subsitutions

Hyperbole

Use of exaggerated terms for emphasis or effect. It is often confused with a simile or a metaphor because it often compares two objects. The difference is that hyperbole is an exaggeration: I could eat a horse.

Auxesis

Magnifying the importance of something by giving it another name. Heightening a word and using it in place of a common word. (a kind of hyperbole; the opposite of Meiosis): A $11 dollar Coke at the ball game is highway robbery.

Litotes

Understatement used deliberately; the understatement is generated by denying the opposite or contrary of the word which otherwise would be used. Depending on the tone and context of the usage, litotes either retains the effect of understatement, or becomes an intensifying expression: It isn't very serious. I have this tiny little tumor on the brain.

Meiosis

Reference to something with a name disproportionately lesser than its nature (a kind of litotes); used to to highlight a point, or explain a situation, or to understate a response used to enhance the effect of a dramatic moment: Oh you know, they were up to normal teenage hijinx like drunk driving and assault.

Euphemism

Substitution of a less offensive or more agreeable term for another: "let go" for "fired" or "dismissed" (implies a generosity on the part of the employer in allowing employee to depart)