aggrandize

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English

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Alternative forms

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Etymology

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From French agrandir.

Pronunciation

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  • IPA(key): /əˈɡɹændaɪ̯z/
  • Audio (UK):(file)

Verb

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aggrandize (third-person singular simple present aggrandizes, present participle aggrandizing, simple past and past participle aggrandized)

  1. (transitive) To make great; to enlarge; to increase.
    to aggrandize one's authority, distress
    • 1624, Richard Montagu, Immediate Addresse vnto God Alone‎[1], London: Matthew Lownes and William Barret, page 19:
      [They] doe adde vnto the bitternesse of that Day, and agrandise the heauie weight of trouble.
    • 1741, I[saac] Watts, “Of the Sciences, and their Use in particular Professions”, in The Improvement of the Mind: Or, A Supplement to the Art of Logick: […], London: […] James Brackstone, […], →OCLC, paragraph XXXVI, page 355:
      In Heroic Verſe, but eſpecially in the grander Lyrics, there are ſometimes ſuch noble Elevations of Thought and Paſſion as illuminate all Things around us, and convey to the Soul moſt exalted and magnificent Images and ſublime Sentiments: Theſe furniſh us with glorious Springs and Mediums to raiſe and aggrandize our Conceptions, […]
    • 1789, William Gilpin, “Account of the Prints”, in Observations, relative chiefly to picturesque beauty, made in the year 1776, on several parts of Great Britain; particularly the High-lands of Scotland‎[2], volume 2, London: R. Blamire, page ii:
      […] on so small a scale, it would be impossible to give an adequate idea of a grand scene. […] Were it painted indeed with exactness on a pane of glass in a window, and the eye brought to it, under the deception of it’s being a real view; the imagination might aggrandize it.
    • 1970, Benjamin I. Schwartz, Communism in China: Ideology in Flux‎[3], New York: Atheneum, page 10:
      […] the relations of ideas to power may assume infinite variations. The tendency may be to aggrandize power at all cost, to aggrandize power but to calculate soberly the risks involved, to conserve existing power, or even to yield power.
  2. (transitive) To make great or greater in power, rank, honor, or wealth (applied to persons, countries, etc.).
    • 1635, David Person, “To the Right Honovrable Thomas Earle of Hadington”, in Varieties‎[4], London: Thomas Alchorn:
      […] the aggrandizing of your estate by well managed fortune […] may well set out your praises to the world […]
    • 1759, David Hume, “[Henry VIII.] Chapter IV.”, in The History of England, under the House of Tudor. […], volume I, London: […] A[ndrew] Millar, […], →OCLC, page 165:
      […] under pretence of ſecuring the purity of religion, he had laid a ſcheme of aggrandizing his own family, by extending its dominions over all Germany.
    • 1815 December (indicated as 1816), [Jane Austen], chapter XVI, in Emma: […], volume I, London: […] [Charles Roworth and James Moyes] for John Murray, →OCLC, page 289:
      He only wanted to aggrandize and enrich himself; and if Miss Woodhouse of Hartfield, the heiress of thirty thousand pounds, were not quite so easily obtained as he had fancied, he would soon try for Miss Somebody else with twenty, or with ten.
    • 1855, William H[ickling] Prescott, “Early Days of Philip”, in History of the Reign of Philip the Second, King of Spain, volume I, Boston, Mass.: Phillips, Sampson, and Company, →OCLC, book I, page 69:
      […] he seems never to have revived his schemes for aggrandizing his son by securing to him the succession to the empire.
  3. (transitive) To make appear great or greater; to exalt.
    • 1750 October 10 (Gregorian calendar), Samuel Johnson, “No. [56]. Saturday, September 29. 1750.”, in The Rambler, volume III, Edinburgh: [[…] Sands, Murray, and Cochran]; sold by W. Gordon, C. Wright, J. Yair, […], published 1750, →OCLC, page 28:
      […] they contrive to make all approaches to them difficult and vexatious, and imagine that they aggrandize themſelves by waſting the time of others in uſeleſs attendance, and by mortifying them with ſlights, and teazing them with affronts.
    • 1833, Elia [pseudonym; Charles Lamb], “[Popular Fallacies.] XVI. That a Sulky Temper Is a Misfortune.”, in The Last Essays of Elia. […], London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, page 279:
      The first thing to aggrandise a man in his own conceit, is to conceive of himself as neglected.
    • 1881, Mark Twain, “Plymouth Rock and the Pilgrims,” address at the first annual dinner, N.E. Society, Philadelphia, 22 December, 1881, in Mark Twain’s Speeches, New York: Harper, 1910, p. 18,[5]
      Why, to be celebrating the mere landing of the Pilgrims—to be trying to make out that this most natural and simple and customary procedure was an extraordinary circumstance—a circumstance to be amazed at, and admired, aggrandized and glorified, at orgies like this for two hundred and sixty years—hang it, a horse would have known enough to land; a horse […]
    • 2015 January 16, Associated Press, “Sandy Hook committee to propose ban on guns that fire more than 10 rounds”, in The Guardian‎[6], London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2015-01-16:
      They noted the use of his [the gunman’s] name is hurtful to the victims’ families and using it could assist anyone who might want to aggrandize his actions.
  4. (intransitive, rare) To increase or become great.
    • 1946, Office of United States Chief of Counsel for Prosecution of Axis Criminality, Nazi Conspiracy and Aggression, Volume 2, Washington: United States Government Printing Office, p. 317,[7]
      The generals, like Hitler, wanted Germany to aggrandize at the expense of neighboring countries, and to do so if necessary by force or threat of force.

Derived terms

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Translations

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