heroizev.
/ˈhɪərəʊʌɪz/, U.S. /ˈhiroʊˌaɪz/, /ˈhɪroʊˌaɪz/, /ˈhɛrəˌwaɪz/ 1.
a. transitive. To make into or treat as a hero; to depict as a hero.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > emotion > courage > heroism > make a hero of [verb]
heroify1677
heroize1695
hero1762
hero-worship1857
1695 P. Hume Annot. Paradise Lost xi. 299 These are said to have been the Kingdoms of Almansor, the famous Moor, Heroised by Mr. Dryden.
1738 Weddell Voy. up Thames 52 He was glad to escape the Trouble of heroizing them.
1742 ‘T. Trifler’ Elogy of Nothing p. iv If I had..heroized a Person of Quality in my Dedication.
1845 Southern Lit. Messenger Jan. 56/1 The first half of his Pickwick Papers, before he had made up his mind whether to heroize Mr. Pickwick, or to whelm him in ridicule.
1883 ‘H. A. Page’ Vers de Societé 132 Did Mr. Elliott bear in mind how he was heroised in Edinburgh?
1921 Med. Rev. of Reviews 27 360/2 Some boys take pleasure in being ‘bad’. Fiction which heroizes bandits, pirates, and the like is devoured with avidity by this class.
1968 Fairbanks (Alaska) Daily News-Miner 4 Dec. 4/4 It is nothing but sad and unfortunate that children and teenagers gape wide-eyed, heroizing some screen character.
2007 L. McGibb in M. Sinha & P. von Eschen Contested Democracy x. 224 Communist Party literature tended to heroize the two men as revolutionary leaders.
b. transitive. spec. To venerate or deify as a hero (hero n. 1).
ΘΚΠ
the mind > attention and judgement > esteem > reputation > majesty, glory, or grandeur > exaltation or glorification > exalt or glorify [verb (transitive)]
heavec825
higheOE
brightenOE
clarifya1340
glorifya1340
enhancec1374
stellifyc1384
biga1400
exalt?a1400
raisea1400
shrinea1400
to bear up?a1425
enhighc1440
erect?a1475
assumec1503
amount1523
dignifya1530
to set up1535
extol1545
enthronize1547
augment1567
sublimate?1567
sublime1568
assumptc1571
begoda1576
royalize1589
suscitate1598
swell1601
consecrate1605
realize1611
reara1616
sphere1615
ingreata1620
superexalta1626
soara1627
ascend1628
rise1628
embroider1629
apotheose1632
grandize1640
engreaten1641
engrandizea1652
mount1651
intronificate1653
magnificent1656
superposit1661
grandify1665
heroify1677
apotheosize1695
enthrone1699
aggrandize1702
pantheonize1801
hoist1814
princify1847
queen1880
heroize1887
1887 Amer. Jrnl. Archæol. 3 264 That the first figure is the deceased is shown by his greater stature, in accordance with the usual custom of heroizing the dead.
1905 Jrnl. Eng. & Germanic Philol. 5 581 The Germanic idea of a tribal king ruling by means of runic and magic wisdom, subsequently heroized and raised to divine rank.
1921 L. R. Farnell Greek Hero Cults & Ideas of Immortality xi. 325 We do not accept the dogma that no ancient mortal woman could be heroized or apotheosized.
2004 M. Clark in R. L. Fowler Cambr. Compan. to Homer iii. viii. 127 Guilds like the Homeridae and the Creophylii heroised their putative founders.
2. transitive. To render (a quality, etc.) heroic; to characterize (something) as heroic.
ΚΠ
1826 Republican 13 376 I may avoid the appearance of dealing in the common cant of common-place moralists, who heroize disinterestedness and self-denial in proportion to the injury they bring upon their possessor.
1886 West. Daily Press 15 Dec. 3 The Laureate should heroise the nation which he represents, and inspire it with noble and radiant thoughts.
1959 Life 18 May 42/1 Our democratic reluctance to heroize human nobility of any kind.
2001 S. S. Wolin Tocqueville between Two Worlds (2003) xxii. 438 Tocqueville had heroized American democracy, making its achievements match its scale.
3. intransitive. To speak or act heroically; spec. (in early use) to speak in an elevated or bombastic style; cf. heroic adj. 2c. Now rare.
ΘΚΠ
society > leisure > the arts > literature > style of language or writing > ornateness > use ornate language [verb (intransitive)] > be bombastic (of language) > use bombastic language
thunder1575
rant1602
mouth1604
rant1649
paratragediate1656
bemouth1799
fustianize1830
heroize1838
1838 Vermont Chron. 18 July 115/1 He dons his buskin and heroizes. He will not be lectured by the Vermont Chronicle, &c.
1875 R. Browning Aristophanes' Apol. 141 Heroize And speechify and sing-song.
1918 Stars & Stripes 15 Mar. 2/2 The French citations are as general as possible, and no man whom I have interviewed can tell me..just how he heroized.
Derivatives
ˈheroized adj.
ΚΠ
1863 Morning Post 13 Aug. 2/3 He cannot refrain from consoling himself by a final might have been for the total route of the Federals and the discomfiture of his heroised general.
1891 W. M. Ramsay in Athenæum 15 Aug. 233/2 A heroized representation of the chief who was buried beneath the tumulus.
1981 Antiquaries Jrnl. 61 i. 30 In the Laconian examples,..standing figures on a much smaller scale may be seen to represent the living at the shrine of the heroized dead.
2011 Age (Melbourne) (Nexis) 13 Oct. (Green Guide) 31 Ayn Rand, the equally reviled and heroised founder of objectivism.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2014; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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