MAGNIFY • DICCIONARIO INGLES.COM • Definition of Magnify

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/mˈægnəfˌaɪ/ Listen

verb

Magnify v. t. (past & past part. magnified; pres. part. magnifying)

To make great, or greater; to increase the dimensions of; to amplify; to enlarge, either in fact or in appearance; as, the microscope magnifies the object by a thousand diameters. "The least error in a small quantity... will in a great one... be proportionately magnified."

To increase the importance of; to augment the esteem or respect in which one is held. "On that day the Lord magnified Joshua in the sight of all Israel."

To praise highly; to laud; to extol. (Archaic) "O, magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt his name together."

To exaggerate; as, to magnify a loss or a difficulty.

To magnify one's self (Script.), to exhibit pride and haughtiness; to boast.

To magnify one's self against (Script.), to oppose with pride.

Magnify v. i.

To have the power of causing objects to appear larger than they really are; to increase the apparent dimensions of objects; as, some lenses magnify but little.

To have effect; to be of importance or significance. (Cant & Obs.)

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Etymology of 'Magnify'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Magnify" Quotes from Famous Books

... not exist and are not necessary. Because I can understand the word "reflect" figuratively, a mirror has never perplexed me. The manner in which my imagination perceives absent things enables me to see how glasses can magnify things, bring them nearer, ...

— The World I Live In • Helen Keller

... that instead of trying to minimize the effect of profit charging to diminish consumption, they deliberately sought to magnify it to the ...

— Equality • Edward Bellamy

... exceedingly martial appearance and was useful, too, in pointing out the way he should go and safeguarding him from the danger of going backward. But if, by an accident, he should go backward or sideways, he had the empty funnel of an old auto horn with which to magnify his voice and make the forest ring with his sonorous cries for help. And if the help did not come, he had still one cylinder of an old opera glass, with the lens of which he could ignite a dried leaf by day or observe the guiding stars by night. And if ...

— Pee-wee Harris on the Trail • Percy Keese Fitzhugh

... exception. The anti-Austrian party frowned, and plotted, and hated. Exasperated by the enthusiasm which the beautiful young queen inspired, they watched her every motion, eager to magnify the most trivial imperfection into crime; hoping, sooner or later, to render her obnoxious to the French people, and finally, to compass the end of all their wicked intrigues—a separation between the king and queen, and the disgrace and banishment ...

— Joseph II. and His Court • L. Muhlbach

... tied to the tail of a mule, and dragged either to the prison of Toledo or Madrid. Yet such a prospect does not discourage me in the least, but rather urges me on to persevere; for I assure you—and in this assertion there lurks not the slightest desire to magnify myself and produce an effect—that I am eager to lay down my life in this cause, and whether a Carlist's bullet or the jail-fever bring my career to an end, I am perfectly indifferent. But I have other matters now ...

— Letters of George Borrow - to the British and Foreign Bible Society • George Borrow

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