Word forms: 3rd person singular presenttense beatifies, present participle beatifying, past tense, past participle beatified
verb
When the Catholic church beatifies someone who is dead, it declares officially that they were a holy person, usually as the first step towards making them a saint.
The Pope beatified 498 priests and nuns killed in the Spanish Civil War. [VERB noun]
beatification (biætɪfɪkeɪʃən)uncountable noun
...the beatification of Cardinal John Henry Newman, the Victorian divine. [+ of]
beatify in British English
(bɪˈætɪˌfaɪ)
verbWord forms: -fies, -fying or -fied
1. (transitive) Roman Catholic Church
(of the pope) to declare formally that (a deceased person) showed a heroic degree of holiness in his or her life and therefore is worthy of public veneration: the first step towards canonization
2. (transitive)
to make extremely happy
Derived forms
beatification (bɪˌætɪfɪˈkeɪʃən)
noun
Word origin
C16: from Old French beatifier, from Late Latin beātificāre to make blessed; see beatific
beatify in American English
(biˈætəˌfaɪ)
verb transitiveWord forms: beˈatiˌfied or beˈatiˌfying
1.
to make blissfully happy
2. Roman CatholicChurch
to declare (a deceased person), by public statement, to be in heaven and entitled to some public veneration
see also beatification (sense 2) beatification (sense 2b)
Word origin
MFr < ML(Ec) beatificare < LL(Ec) < beatus < L (see bonus) + facere, to make, do1
Examples of 'beatify' in a sentence
beatify
Mark wanted to understand the deaths, Nora to beatify them, Gordon to explain the mechanics.