aggrandize
/əˈɡrandʌɪz
/(also aggrandise)
verb [with object]
1Increase the power, status, or wealth of: an action intended to aggrandize the Frankish dynasty...
- Some questioned whether Tarkin's methods were merely bids to aggrandize his own status, in defiance of the Emperor's ultimate goal.
- All too often, business nowadays sees government as a sea of anti-progress ‘Sir Humphreys’ who generate red tape, obfuscate at every turn and aggrandise unaccountable power to themselves behind closed doors.
- By structure and inclination, the new Europe would focus on aggrandizing EU power at the expense of NATO, the foundation of the transatlantic security relationship for more than half a century.
1.1Enhance the reputation of (someone) beyond what is justified by the facts: he hoped to aggrandize himself by dying a hero’s death...
- By rallying behind a non-elected figure, they say, her supporters run the risk of giving up on the political process entirely, or aggrandizing her rather than furthering the issues for which she stands.
- Rather, this is an excerpt taken from his address to the convention in his race for governor, where 2500 supporters aggrandized him with numerous standing ovations.
- Most of these stories do seem to be romanticised hindsight as the chemist or his pupil or obituarist places the discovery in a human context that renders largely superfluous any rivals or spurious steps, or aggrandises the man into a hero.
Derivatives
aggrandizement
/ noun ...- Too many leaders are in it for personal enrichment or aggrandizement, a show-me-the-money style of leadership that has led directly to today's landscape of wrecked corporations and indicted CEOs.
- Long terms in the office have not done Africa any good, except ensuring personal aggrandisement and enrichment,’ he said.
- This despite being part of a school system which demonstrably does not waste much of its money on bureaucracy and aggrandizement of its own honchos; the system has no trouble educating half of its students.
aggrandizer
- Upstarts, such as alpha-type bullies and despotic self-aggrandizers, are eventually restrained, as are overly selfish free-riders and odd-ball deviants.
- This special status may have been limited to specific aggrandizers or to corporate groups in which the status of the aggrandizer was conveyed to his entire family or lineage.
- Since Riverside represents approximately 600 years of use, however, why are there no other lavish burials of adult male aggrandizers?
Origin
Mid 17th century (in the general sense 'increase, magnify'): from French agrandiss-, lengthened stem of agrandir, probably from Italian aggrandire, from Latin grandis 'large'. The ending was changed by association with verbs ending in -ize.