magnify

English

Alternative forms

• magnifie (obsolete)

Etymology

Borrowed from Middle French magnifier, from Latin magnificāre, from magnificus.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈmaɡnɪfaɪ/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈmæɡnɪfaɪ/

• Audio (AU)

  (file)

Verb

magnify (third-person singular simple present magnifies, present participle magnifying, simple past and past participle magnified)

1. (transitive) To praise, glorify (someone or something, especially God).
   • 1526, [William Tyndale, transl.], The Newe Testamẽt  (Tyndale Bible), [Worms, Germany: Peter Schöffer], →OCLC, Acts:

     For they herde them speake with tonges, and magnify God.

   • 1644, John Milton, Areopagitica; a Speech of Mr. John Milton for the Liberty of Unlicenc’d Printing, to the Parlament of England, London: [s.n.], →OCLC:

     For he who freely magnifies what hath been nobly done, and fears not to declare as freely what might be done better, gives ye the best cov'nant of his fidelity […]

   • 1851 November 14, Herman Melville, “The Fossil Whale”, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC, page 506:

     Having already described him [the whale] in most of his present habitatory and anatomical peculiarities, it now remains to magnify him in an archæological, fossiliferous, and antediluvian point of view.

2. (transitive) To make (something) larger or more important.
   • 2006, Edwin Black, chapter 2, in Internal Combustion:

     But through the oligopoly, charcoal fuel proliferated throughout London's trades and industries. By the 1200s, brewers and bakers, tilemakers, glassblowers, pottery producers, and a range of other craftsmen all became hour-to-hour consumers of charcoal. This only magnified the indispensable nature of the oligopolists.

3. (transitive) To make (someone or something) appear greater or more important than it is; to intensify, exaggerate.
4. (transitive) To make (something) appear larger by means of a lens, magnifying glass, telescope etc.
   • 2013 July-August, Catherine Clabby, “Focus on Everything”, in American Scientist:

     Not long ago, it was difficult to produce photographs of tiny creatures with every part in focus. That’s because the lenses that are excellent at magnifying tiny subjects produce a narrow depth of field. A photo processing technique called focus stacking has changed that.

5. (intransitive, slang, obsolete) To have effect; to be of importance or significance.
   • 1712 July 26 (Gregorian calendar), [Richard Steele], “TUESDAY, July 15, 1712”, in The Spectator, number 431; republished in Alexander Chalmers, editor, The Spectator; a New Edition, , volume V, New York, N.Y.: D[aniel] Appleton & Company, 1853, →OCLC:

     My Governess […] told him I was continually eating some Trash or other. […] But this magnified but little with my Father.

     The spelling has been modernized.

Derived terms

• magnifier
• magnifying glass
• magnification

Related terms

• minify (opposite)

Translations