embolden

present singular third person emboldens · participle present emboldening · participle past emboldened · past emboldened · first person past singular emboldened · archaic present second person singular emboldenest · past second person singular emboldened · archaic past second person singular emboldenedst · present singular third person emboldens · archaic present singular third person emboldeneth · past singular third person emboldened · past plural emboldened · past subjunctive emboldened · participle present emboldening · participle past emboldened · alternative imbolden

1. transitiveTo render (someone) bolder or more courageous; to encourage, to hearten.

   Their lookes imboldned, modeſtie novv gone, / Conuert at length to little-differing Stone.

   1626, Ovid, “The Tenth Booke”, in George Sandys, transl., Ovid’s Metamorphosis Englished […], London: […] William Stansby, →OCLC, page 201

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   Steel your thoughts, ſharp your reſolue, imboldẽ your spirit, graſp your ſvvords; alarum miſchief, & vvith an vndãted brovv, out ſcout the grim oppoſition of most menacing perill.

   1600 or 1601 (date written), I. M. [i.e., John Marston], Antonios Reuenge. The Second Part. […], London: […] [Richard Bradock] for Thomas Fisher, and are to be soulde [by Matthew Lownes] […], published 1602, →OCLC, Act V, scene iii, signatures I4, recto – I4, verso

   I haue heard many ſuch things: miſerable comforters are ye all. Shall vaine words haue an ende? or what emboldeneth thee, that thou anſwereſt?

   1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Job 16:2–3, column 2

   I haue ſeene a pardon giuen to a man vpon the gallovves, but vvho ſo emboldeneth himſelfe thereuypon, perhaps the rope may be his hire: it is not good to put it vpon the Pſalme of Miſerere, and the neck-verſe, for ſometime he prooues no clarke.

   1619, Samuell Hieron, “The Worth of the Water of Life. Dauids Longing, and Dauids Loue. The Good Fight. [II. Tim[othy] 4. 7.]”, in The Sermons of Master Samuell Hieron, […], London: […] Iohn Beale [and John Legatt printer to the Uniuersitie of Cambridge for Thomas Man, Ioyce Macham, Cantrell Legge, and Simon Waterson], published 1620, →OCLC, pages 222–223

   Give me a reaſon; vvhat is it that ſtirrs thee to reply upon me, VVhat emboldeneth thee to anſvver? The Hebrevv vvord ſignifies, firſt, to ſtrengthen, to fortifie, or confirme; he that is ſtrengthened, is emboldened.

   1650, Joseph Caryl, “Job, Chap. 16, Vers. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 [Verse 3]”, in An Exposition with Practicall Observations Continued upon the Fifteenth, Sixteenth, and Seventeenth Chapters of the Book of Job: […], London: […] Matthew Simmons, and are to be sould by Thomas Eglesfeild […], →OCLC, page 222

   Thus I embold'nd ſpake, and freedom us'd / Permiſſive, and acceptance found, which gain'd / This anſwer from the gratious voice Divine.

   1667, John Milton, “Book VII”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC, lines 1071–1073

   Synonyms: bolden

2. transitivemediaTo format (text) in boldface.

   Embolden the company name. Balance-wise, the company name could do with standing out more.

   2007, Craig Grannell, “Getting User Feedback”, in The Essential Guide to HTML5 and CSS3 Web Design, Berkeley, Calif.: Friends of ED, Apress, →ISBN, page 339

   2 more examples

   This note introduces several additional features of LATEX: […] ▪ The use of text style commands, including the \emph command to emphasize text, the \textbf command to embolden text, and the \texttt command to produce typewriter style text.

   1999, George [A.] Grätzer, “Typing Text”, in First Steps in LATEX, Boston, Mass.: Birkhäuser; New York, N.Y.: Springer, →ISBN, page 8

   The [HTML] tags <p></p> indicate paragraphs breaks, and we have included some basic text formatting: <em></em> for emphasis (typically italics), <u></u> for underline and <strong></strong> to embolden text.

   2004, Jason Whittaker, “Web Design”, in The Cyberspace Handbook, London; New York, N.Y.: Routledge, →ISBN, part III (Reading/Writing Cyberspace), page 216

   Synonyms: bold, boldface