Library / English Dictionary

MAGNIFY

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

Irregular inflected form: magnified   

 I. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Make large

Example:

blow up an image

Synonyms:

blow up; enlarge; magnify

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Hypernyms (to "magnify" is one way to...):

increase (make bigger or more)

Domain category:

photography; picture taking (the act of taking and printing photographs)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Derivation:

magnification (a photographic print that has been enlarged)

magnification (the ratio of the size of an image to the size of the object)

magnifier (a scientific instrument that magnifies an image)

magnitude (the property of relative size or extent (whether large or small))

Sense 2

Meaning:

Increase in size, volume or significance

Example:

Her terror was magnified in her mind

Synonyms:

amplify; magnify

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Hypernyms (to "magnify" is one way to...):

enlarge (become larger or bigger)

Sentence frames:

Something ----s
Somebody ----s something
Something ----s something

Derivation:

magnification (the act of expanding something in apparent size)

magnification (a photographic print that has been enlarged)

magnification (making to seem more important than it really is)

magnification (the ratio of the size of an image to the size of the object)

magnitude (the property of relative size or extent (whether large or small))

magnitude (relative importance)

Sense 3

Meaning:

To enlarge beyond bounds or the truth

Example:

tended to romanticize and exaggerate this 'gracious Old South' imagery

Synonyms:

amplify; exaggerate; hyperbolise; hyperbolize; magnify; overdraw; overstate

Classified under:

Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing

Hypernyms (to "magnify" is one way to...):

misinform; mislead (give false or misleading information to)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "magnify"):

overemphasise; overemphasize; overstress (place special or excessive emphasis on)

blow; bluster; boast; brag; gas; gasconade; shoot a line; swash; tout; vaunt (show off)

aggrandise; aggrandize; blow up; dramatise; dramatize; embellish; embroider; lard; pad (add details to)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Derivation:

magnification (making to seem more important than it really is)

Credits

 Context examples: 

In the case of Icarus, a natural “magnifying glass” is created by a galaxy cluster called MACS J1149+2223.

(Hubble Uncovers the Farthest Star Ever Seen, NASA)

To see Miss Mowcher standing over him, looking at his rich profusion of brown hair through a large round magnifying glass, which she took out of her pocket, was a most amazing spectacle.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

With all things in astrology, so much depends on the direction a relationship has taken until now, for an eclipse will magnify feelings to make them clear and unavoidable.

(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)

For, although their largest telescopes do not exceed three feet, they magnify much more than those of a hundred with us, and show the stars with greater clearness.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

An exam that uses a magnifying lens and a light to check the fundus of the eye (back of the inside of the eye, including the retina and optic nerve).

(Fundoscopy, NCI Dictionary)

A microscope is an optical instrument that uses a combination of lenses to produce magnified images of very small objects

(Microscope, NCI Thesaurus)

She was stung by his words into realization of the puerility of her act, and yet she felt that he had magnified it unduly and was consequently resentful.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

Catherine, at any rate, heard enough to feel that in suspecting General Tilney of either murdering or shutting up his wife, she had scarcely sinned against his character, or magnified his cruelty.

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)

Being a little shortsighted, Mr. Bhaer sometimes used eye glasses, and Jo had tried them once, smiling to see how they magnified the fine print of her book.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

An optical instrument that uses a combination of lenses to produce magnified images of very small objects

(Microscope Device Component, NCI Thesaurus)