| 释义 |
magnify, v.|ˈmægnɪfaɪ|
Also 4, 6 magnifye, 4–6 magnefie, magnyfye, 4–7 magnifie, 6 magnifi, mangnify, 4– magnify.
[ad. L. magnificāre (partly through F. magnifier; cf. It. magnificare, Sp. magnificar), f. magnificus: see magnificent and -fy. Sense 4 is purely Eng.; the Rom. langs. have the word chiefly in the biblical sense ‘to extol’.]
1. trans. To speak or act for the honour or glory of (a person or thing); to glorify, extol. arch.
c1380Wyclif Sel. Wks. II. 2 For þei maken Cristis wordis unworshipid and magnifien þer owne wordis. a1400–50Alexander 2838 Obey þe to þe baratour þe best I con rede; Magnifie him with þi mouthe. 1430–40Lydg. Bochas ix. ii. (1554) 197 b, This was the ende of false Machomete,..whom Sarazins so greatly magnifie. 1508Dunbar Poems viii. 14 Quhois force all France in fame did magnifie. 1553Eden Treat. Newe Ind. (Arb.) 29 Columbus..was..greatlye magnified with innumerable glorious tittles. 1568Grafton Chron. II. 524 After this victorie, the Lorde Scales..returned to the siege, where he was..highly magnified and praysed. 1605Bacon Adv. Learn. i. viii. §6 If the invention of the ship was thought so noble,..how much more are letters to be magnified, which as ships pass through the vast seas of time. 1668–9Pepys Diary 10 Feb., Here he dined, and did mightily magnify his sauce. a1715Burnet Own Time (1724) I. 248 He had magnified him highly to the King, as much the greatest man in the Scotish Clergy. 1837H. Martineau Soc. Amer. III. 64 Sunday-school teachers admire their pupils; and the scholars magnify their teachers. 1849Macaulay Hist. Eng. ii. I. 191 Everywhere men magnified his valour, genius, and patriotism.
b. esp. To praise, render honour to (God). arch.
1382Wyclif Luke i. 46 And Marie seide, My soule magnyfieth the Lord, and my spirit hath gladid in God, myn heelthe. c1420Lydg. Assembly of Gods 2102 With heuynly spyrytes, hys name to magnyfy. 1535Coverdale Ecclus. xliii. 30 Prayse the Lorde, and magnifie him as moch as ye maye. 1864Skeat tr. Uhland's Poems 91 When on your knees ye humbly fell And magnified a Higher Power.
2. To make greater in size, status, importance, or qualities; to enlarge, augment. Now rare. † Also, to render magnificent. Obs.
1382Wyclif Matt. xxiii. 5 Forsothe thei alargen her filateries, and magnifie hemmys. 1390Gower Conf. I. 143 Thanne he gan to syke For cloth of gold and for perrie, Which him was wont to magnefie. c1430Lydg. Compl. Bl. Knt. 428 And can hemselve now best magnify With feyned port and false presumption. 1535Coverdale Job xx. 6 Though he be magnified vp to the heauen. 1598R. Grenewey Tacitus, Ann. xii. vii. (1622) 162 Agrippina also was magnified [L. augetur] with the surname of Augusta. 1611Bible Job xix. 5 If indeed yee will magnifie your selues against me, and plead against me my reproch. 1701Grew Cosm. Sacra ii. v. 53 The least error in a Small Quantity, as in a Small Circle: will, in a great one, as in the Circles of the Heavenly Orbs, be proportionally Magnify'd. 1715Addison Freeholder No. 10 ⁋3 Arbitrary Power..creates [in a man] an Ambition of magnifying Himself, by the Exertion of such a Power in all its Instances. 1726Butler Serm. Rolls Chap. ix. 159 The imagined Dignity of the Person offended would scarce ever fail to magnifie the Offence. a1729Congreve To Cynthia 54 Speak, ere my Fancy magnifie my Fears. 1784Cowper Task iv. 542 Her head, adorned with lappets pinned aloft, And magnified beyond all human size. 1841Myers Cath. Th. iv. §37. 369 The spirit of law is also represented as magnified by the very act of superseding its letter. 1860Tyndall Glac. i. xxvii. 210 The oblique arrangement of the crevasses also magnified the labour by increasing the circuits.
b. intr. To become greater. nonce-use.
1814J. Randolph 22 Mar. in Life of Jos. Quincy 350 The curse of slavery, however,—an evil daily magnifying, great as it already is,—embitters many a moment of the Virginian landholder.
3. trans. To represent (persons, actions, or things) as great or greater than they are; to exaggerate. Now often associated with sense 4.
1759Robertson Hist. Scot. vi. Wks. 1813 I. 399 Fame magnified the number and progress of their troops. 1766Goldsm. Vic. W. xvi, It must be owned my wife..used every art to magnify the merit of her daughter. 1784Cowper Tiroc. 476 Each vainly magnifies his own success, Resents his fellows, wishes it were less. 1838Thirlwall Greece xxv. III. 397 But his enemies at home magnified the danger of Argos. 1839J. Yeowell Anc. Brit. Ch. ix. (1847) 93 Fame magnified his labours. 1841Myers Cath. Th. iv. 19. 276 Unquestionably external evidences..have been unduly magnified. 1862Sir B. Brodie Psychol. Inq. II. iii. 81 Small evils which cannot be avoided are magnified into great ones.
4. To increase the apparent size of an object by artificial means (as with a lens or microscope). Also absol. (often with advb. accusative, to magnify ten, twenty, etc. diameters).
1665Phil. Trans. I. 60 It would magnifie but 600 times in Diameter. 1726Swift Gulliver iii. iii, Although their largest Telescopes do not exceed three Feet, they magnify much more than those of an hundred among us. 1776–96Withering Brit. Plants (ed. 3) IV. 3 When magnified they appear like ill-formed warts. 1812–16J. Smith Panorama Sci. & Art I. 407 It is supposed that the ancient engravers used glass globes to magnify their figures. 1837Goring & Pritchard Microgr. 57 You only wish to know exactly how much it magnifies. 1868Lockyer Elem. Astron. iii. (1879) 91 A powerful telescope will magnify an object 1,000 times.
fig.1853Kane Grinnell Exp. xiv. (1856) 110 The effects of fogs upon our estimation of dimension..are well known: men are magnified to giants. 1862Mrs. H. Wood Mrs. Hallib. iii. xii. 155 Ill reports never lose by carrying: the two cats on the tiles, you know, were magnified into a hundred.
5. intr. ‘A cant word for to have effect’ (J.); to signify. Now dial.
1712Steele Spect. No. 431 ⁋3 My Governess..told him I was continually eating some Trash or other... But this magnified but little with my Father. 1733Gentl. Mag. III. 532 Now may hap, zir, what doez ael this magnify? 1880Antrim & Down Gloss. s. v., That hurt won't magnify. |