aggrandize

verb

1. (transitive)To make great; to enlarge; to increase.

   “to aggrandize one's authority, distress”

   “[They] doe adde vnto the bitternesse of that Day, and agrandise the heauie weight of trouble.”

   “In Heroic Verſe, but eſpecially in the grander Lyrics, there are ſometimes ſuch noble Elevations of Thought and Paſſion as illuminate all Things around us, and convey to the Soul moſt exalted and magnificent Images and ſublime Sentiments: Theſe furniſh us with glorious Springs and Mediums to raiſe and aggrandize our Conceptions, […]”

   “[…] on so small a scale, it would be impossible to give an adequate idea of a grand scene. […] Were it painted indeed with exactness on a pane of glass in a window, and the eye brought to it, under the deception of it’s being a real view; the imagination might aggrandize it.”

   “[…] the relations of ideas to power may assume infinite variations. The tendency may be to aggrandize power at all cost, to aggrandize power but to calculate soberly the risks involved, to conserve existing power, or even to yield power.”

2. (transitive)To make great or greater in power, rank, honor, or wealth (applied to persons, countries, etc.).

   “[…] the aggrandizing of your estate by well managed fortune […] may well set out your praises to the world […]”

   “[…] under pretence of ſecuring the purity of religion, he had laid a ſcheme of aggrandizing his own family, by extending its dominions over all Germany.”

   “He only wanted to aggrandize and enrich himself; and if Miss Woodhouse of Hartfield, the heiress of thirty thousand pounds, were not quite so easily obtained as he had fancied, he would soon try for Miss Somebody else with twenty, or with ten.”

   “[…] he seems never to have revived his schemes for aggrandizing his son by securing to him the succession to the empire.”

3. (formal, transitive)To make appear great or greater; to exalt.

   “aggrandize one's accomplishments and downplay others'”

   “[…] 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.”

   “The first thing to aggrandise a man in his own conceit, is to conceive of himself as neglected.”

   “They noted the use of his [the gunman’s] name is hurtful to the victims’ families and using it could assist anyone who might want to aggrandize his actions.”

4. (intransitive, rare)To increase or become great.

   “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.”