Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- v. To confer dignity or honor on; give distinction to: dignified him with a title.
- v. To raise the status of (something unworthy or lowly); make honorable: would not dignify the insulting question with a response.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- To invest with honor or dignity; exalt in rank or office; promote.
- To confer honor upon; make illustrious; give celebrity to; honor.
- To make worthy of admiration and respect; elevate.
- = Syn.1. To prefer, advance.
- To grace, adorn, ennoble, lend or give luster to.
Wiktionary
GNU Webster's 1913
- v. To invest with dignity or honor; to make illustrious; to give distinction to; to exalt in rank; to honor.
WordNet 3.0
- v. raise the status of
- v. confer dignity or honor upon
Etymologies
- From Old French dignifier, from Late Latin dignificare; Latin dignus (worthy) + ficare (in comp.), facere (to make). See deign, and fact. (Wiktionary)
- Middle English dignifien, from Old French dignifier, from Late Latin dignificāre : Latin dignus, worthy; see dek- in Indo-European roots + Latin -ficāre, -fy. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Privately, one campaign official says they were aware of several of the more scurrilous rumors about Palin making the rounds of the blogosphere, although the official declined to "dignify" them with any comment.”
“They chose to ignore the science and to rely instead on Democratic conventional wisdom, that bringing a smear into the light of day and attacking it there before it captures the popular imagination only draws attention to it, and that it's better not to "dignify" it.”
Drew Westen: What Obama Needs to Do in the Final Sixty Days: Avoiding President Palin
“When the swift boat attacks began to surface along with a book detailing their charges in early August, the Kerry team let it fester, not wanting to "dignify" the attack.”
“When the Bush campaign began branding Kerry as a flip-flopper the day he became the presumptive nominee, the Kerry campaign let it fester, not wanting to "dignify" the attack.”
“Uh, yeah, so you won't "dignify" me with a link because... why?”
One more night of convention blogging. The Invesco Field extravaganza.
“The Atlantic's liberal bloggers are puffed up with outrage that Mrs. Clinton would "dignify" the Spectator, as James Fallows puts it:”
“Is it that all the newspapers and TV stations in the world decided that they did not want to "dignify" that story by investigating it to see if it were true or false?”
“AA - I agree that Nicole Belle's attack was unfair (assuming you quoted it correctly, as I do) and that her decision not to "dignify" you with a link does suggest the possibility of an attempt to deceive (albeit a ham-handed one as presumably most readers know how to get to your site).”
Nicole Belle embarrasses herself with a childishly written, dishonest smear.
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘dignify’.
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Words with that horrible 'gn' sound
pregnant, interregnum, impregnable, signal, signature, prognosis, ignorant, ignominious, magnum, diagnosis, designation, incognito and 37 more...
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-fy
make
satisfy, mollify, exemplify, sanctify, deify, nullify, dignify, putrefy, solidify, beautify, jellify
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eggplantia5's Words
scintillate, marvel, cranberry, oscillate, triumph, bamboozle, grimace, magical, book, hexagon, cipher, compendium and 2727 more...
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vozcelik's Words
cranny, tummy, nook, sinister, cajole, frugal, chafe, wimp, booger, patriarchy, indifference, mire and 162 more...
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Just 'cause I like 'em, D
dodecahedron, din, diglyceride, dysphotopsia, decoction, deboss, diatonic, dithyramb, divagate, discalced, dishdasha, daft and 281 more...
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Whatever Works (2009)
Words from 2009 'Whatever Works' film.
fault, racket, unto, flaw, fallacious, notion, decent, embalm, filch, delusion, delusions of gran..., grandeur and 135 more...
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Watchmen (2009)
Words from 2009 'Watchmen' film.
adversary, certitude, deterrent, stockpile, posturing, minuteman, vigilante, toss, flip, spook, carcass, tread and 174 more...
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