heroizingn.
/ˈhɪərəʊʌɪzɪŋ/, U.S. /ˈhiroʊˌaɪzɪŋ/, /ˈhɪroʊˌaɪzɪŋ/, /ˈhɛrəˌwaɪzɪŋ/ The action of treating or depicting someone as hero. Also (in quot. 1843): †the action of speaking or behaving heroically (obsolete).
ΚΠ
1663 E. Waterhouse Fortescutus Illustratus xxix. 382 The enfranchisement and heroising of their spirits.
1843 City of London Mag. May 81 There were many as though in act of heroizing. They were speaking great things, they were planning great things, some (but few) were even doing great things.
1860 A. L. Windsor Ethica ii. 105 Heroizing is the radical vice of the day.
1925 Amer. Mercury Aug. 510/2 There is here neither heroizing nor moralizing.
2011 T. Grady German–Jewish Soldiers 1st World War iv. 122 The Nazis' heroising of the war dead.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2014; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
heroizingadj.
/ˈhɪərəʊʌɪzɪŋ/, U.S. /ˈhiroʊˌaɪzɪŋ/, /ˈhɪroʊˌaɪzɪŋ/, /ˈhɛrəˌwaɪzɪŋ/ That treats or depicts someone as a hero; spec. (of a sculpture, monument, etc.) that commemorates someone as a hero (hero n. 1).
ΚΠ
1870 T. Wright Bane of Life I. i. v. 92 But then, Fanny saw him not with your discriminating eyes, but by the heroizing light of a first love.
1896 P. Gardner Sculptured Tombs of Hellas xiii. 218 The group of votaries usual on heroizing reliefs.
1908 Papyrus Oct. 10 Mr. Winter, with a heroizing touch that does his heart credit, speaks of O'Brien's ‘uncommonly attractive aspect, his athletic figure,..and winning demeanour’.
1982 Anatolian Stud. 32 59 Both a gymnasium and an agora would be suitable locations for a heroising tomb of a benefactor.
2003 N.Y. Times (National ed.) 2 May b31/3 He did busts of Napoleon and Josephine (thin-lipped, with a dental problem, aging): almost streamlined sculptures.., still heroizing but remarkably frank.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2014; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
<
n.1663adj.1870