magnify

verb
/ˈmaɡnɪfaɪ/UK/ˈmæɡnɪfaɪ/US

Etymology

From Middle English magnifien, from Middle French magnifier, from Latin magnificāre, from magnificus.

  1. derived from magnificō
  2. derived from magnifier
  3. inherited from magnifien

Definitions

  1. To praise, glorify (someone or something, especially God).

    • For they herde them speake with tonges, and magnify God.
    • For he who freely magnifies what hath been nobly done, and fears not to declare as freely what might be done better, gives ye the best cov'nant of his fidelity […]
    • Having already described him [the whale] in most of his present habitatory and anatomical peculiarities, it now remains to magnify him in an archæological, fossiliferous, and antediluvian point of view.
  2. To make (something) larger or more important.

  3. To make (someone or something) appear greater or more important than it is

    To make (someone or something) appear greater or more important than it is; to intensify, exaggerate.

  4. + 2 more definitions
    1. To make (something) appear larger by means of a lens, magnifying glass, telescope etc.

    2. To have effect

      To have effect; to be of importance or significance.

      • My Governess […] told him I was continually eating some Trash or other. […] But this magnified but little with my Father.

The neighborhood

Vish — recursive loop

A definitional loop anchored at magnify. Each word in the ring is defined by the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself. Scroll to it and watch.

01magnify02glorify03exalt04elevate05raise06increase07greaten

A definitional loop anchored at magnify. Each word in the ring appears in the definition of the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself.

7 hops · closes at magnify

curated · pre-corpus. live cycle detection across the full graph is the next major milestone.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA