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Definitions

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

  1. v. To make larger; add to.
  2. v. To give greater scope to; expand. See Synonyms at increase.
  3. v. To become larger; grow.
  4. v. To speak or write at greater length or in greater detail; elaborate: enlarged upon the plan.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

  1. To make larger; add to; increase in extent, bulk, or quantity; extend; augment: as, to enlarge a building or a business.
  2. To increase the capacity or scope of; expand; make more comprehensive.
  3. To increase in appearance; magnify to the eye.
  4. To set at large or at liberty; give freedom or scope to; release from limitation, confinement, or pressure.
  5. To state at large; expatiate upon: in this sense now followed by on or upon. See II., 2.
  6. To awaken strong religious feeling in; “enlarge the heart” of; hence, to move to utterance; cause or permit to expatiate: often reflexive.
  7. In old law, to give further time to; extend, postpone, or continue: as, to enlarge a rule or an order.
  8. To grow large or larger; increase; dilate; expand: as, a plant enlarges by growth; an estate enlarges by good management.
  9. To speak at large; be diffuse in speaking or writing; expatiate; amplify: with on or upon.
  10. To exaggerate.
  11. In photography, to make enlargements; practise solar printing. See enlargement, 8.
  12. n. Freedom; liberty; enlargement.
  13. To cause (a horse) to spread his legs wider apart, so as to prevent him from interfering.

Wiktionary

  1. v. To make larger.
  2. v. To speak at length upon or on (some subject)
  3. v. To release; to set at large.

GNU Webster's 1913

  1. v. To make larger; to increase in quantity or dimensions; to extend in limits; to magnify
  2. v. To increase the capacity of; to expand; to give free scope or greater scope to; also, to dilate, as with joy, affection, and the like.
  3. v. To set at large or set free.
  4. v. To grow large or larger; to be further extended; to expand
  5. v. To speak or write at length; to be diffuse in speaking or writing; to expatiate; to dilate.
  6. v. To get more astern or parallel with the vessel's course; to draw aft; -- said of the wind.

WordNet 3.0

  1. v. make larger
  2. v. add details, as to an account or idea; clarify the meaning of and discourse in a learned way, usually in writing
  3. v. make large
  4. v. become larger or bigger

Etymologies

  1. Middle English enlargen, from Old French enlargier : en-, causative pref.; see en-1 + large, large; see large.

Examples

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Lists

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‘enlarge’ has been looked up 1064 times, added to 6 lists, and has a Scrabble score of 8.