Aggrandize
verb ·Common ·High school level
Definitions
- 1 To make great; to enlarge; to increase. transitive
"to aggrandize one's authority, distress"
- 2 add details to wordnet
- 3 To make great or greater in power, rank, honor, or wealth (applied to persons, countries, etc.). transitive
"[…] the aggrandizing of your estate by well managed fortune […] may well set out your praises to the world […]"
- 4 To make appear great or greater; to exalt. transitive
"[…] they contrive to make all approaches to them difficult and vexatious, and imagine that they aggrandize themſelves by waſting the time of others in uſeleſs attendance, and by mortifying them with ſlights, and teazing them with affronts."
- 5 To increase or become great. intransitive, rare
"1946, Office of United States Chief of Counsel for Prosecution of Axis Criminality, Nazi Conspiracy and Aggression, Volume 2, Washington: United States Government Printing Office, p. 317, The generals, like Hitler, wanted Germany to aggrandize at the expense of neighboring countries, and to do so if necessary by force or threat of force."
Example
More examples"It is too true, however disgraceful it may be to human nature, that nations in general will make war whenever they have a prospect of getting anything by it; nay, absolute monarchs will often make war when their nations are to get nothing by it, but for the purposes and objects merely personal, such as thirst for military glory, revenge for personal affronts, ambition, or private compacts to aggrandize or support their particular families or partisans. These and a variety of other motives, which affect only the mind of the sovereign, often lead him to engage in wars not sanctified by justice or the voice and interests of his people."
Etymology
From French agrandir.
Related phrases
More for "aggrandize"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.