magnify

present singular third person magnifies · participle present magnifying · participle past magnified · past magnified · alternative obsolete magnifie

1. transitiveTo praise, glorify (someone or something, especially God).First known use 14th c.

   For they herde them speake with tonges, and magnify God.

   1526, [William Tyndale, transl.], The Newe Testamẽt […] (Tyndale Bible), [Worms, Germany: Peter Schöffer], →OCLC, Acts

   2 more examples

   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 […]

   1644, John Milton, Areopagitica; a Speech of Mr. John Milton for the Liberty of Unlicenc’d Printing, to the Parlament of England, London: [s.n.], →OCLC

   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.

   1851 November 14, Herman Melville, “The Fossil Whale”, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC, page 506

   Synonyms: exalt, extol, laud, aggrandize, applaud, enthrone, appraise, belaud

2. transitiveTo make (something) larger or more important.First known use 14th c.

   1 more example

   But through the oligopoly, charcoal fuel proliferated throughout London's trades and industries. By the 1200s, brewers and bakers, tilemakers, glassblowers, pottery producers, and a range of other craftsmen all became hour-to-hour consumers of charcoal. This only magnified the indispensable nature of the oligopolists.

   2006, Edwin Black, chapter 2, in Internal Combustion

3. transitiveTo make (someone or something) appear greater or more important than it is; to intensify, exaggerate.First known use 17th c.
4. transitiveTo make (something) appear larger by means of a lens, magnifying glass, telescope etc.First known use 17th c.

   Not long ago, it was difficult to produce photographs of tiny creatures with every part in focus. That’s because the lenses that are excellent at magnifying tiny subjects produce a narrow depth of field. A photo processing technique called focus stacking has changed that.

   2013 July-August, Catherine Clabby, “Focus on Everything”, in American Scientist

5. intransitiveobsoleteslangTo 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.

   1712 July 25 (Gregorian calendar), [Richard Steele], “MONDAY, July 15, 1712”, in The Spectator, number 431; republished in Alexander Chalmers, editor, The Spectator; a New Edition, […], volume V, New York, N.Y.: D[aniel] Appleton & Company, 1853, →OCLC