Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- v. To raise or increase the quantity or degree of; intensify.
- v. To make high or higher; raise.
- v. To rise or increase in quantity or degree; intensify.
- v. To become high or higher; rise.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- To make higher; increase the vertical elevation of.
- To make higher in amount or degree; increase; augment; intensify: as, to heighten an effect.
- To make high or higher in feeling or condition; elevate or exalt, as the mind or a person.
- Synonyms Lift, Exalt, etc. See raise.
- To become higher; increase; augment.
Wiktionary
- v. To make high; to raise higher; to elevate.
- v. To carry forward; to advance; to increase; to augment; to aggravate; to intensify; to render more conspicuous; -- used of things, good or bad; as, to heighten beauty; to heighten a flavor or a tint.
GNU Webster's 1913
- v. To make high; to raise higher; to elevate.
- v. To carry forward; to advance; to increase; to augment; to aggravate; to intensify; to render more conspicuous; -- used of things, good or bad
WordNet 3.0
- v. make (one's senses) more acute
- v. become more extreme
- v. increase the height of
- v. make more extreme; raise in quantity, degree, or intensity
- v. increase.
- v. make more intense, stronger, or more marked
Etymologies
- height + -en (Wiktionary)
Examples
“Support for profiling might approach majority levels among both groups should an actual attack or close call heighten fears.”
“I've been to Fort Benning for the SOA Watch protests and I am unsure how they could "heighten" the security.”
“GROSS: Did coming of age artistically during the AIDS epidemic just kind of heighten your sense of mortality?”
“I think the other thing is that if he ` s as disturbed as he seems to be, if he ` s a sociopath, often these guys are highly sexualized, and so they do engage in unusual sexual activities to kind of heighten their excitement in life.”
“And that has been now a major part of what John Kerry has been saying as he reaches out into the middle, and that is, hey, this man, George Bush, came to Washington to kind of heighten the tone, and he hasn't.”
“So, that's going to kind of heighten their curiosity, if you will.”
“The mountains speak to me of my desire to "heighten", to continuously elevate my thoughts and actions to a spiritual peak.”
“heighten" the purely dramatic element and to "move that admiration which is the delight of serious plays" and to which "a bare imitation" will not suffice.”
“heighten," or "escalate" the basic meanings of nouns on the one hand, and verbs and adjectives on the other, by qualifying them with adjectives and adverbs, respectively.”
“Although we lack systematic information about exactly what is discussed in these religious networks, it is possible that religious friends are more likely to raise moral issues, principles, and obligations than friends from a nonreligious context and thus to heighten your own attentiveness to such concerns.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘heighten’.
-
Uppity
Words and concepts of up. Literally or figuratively.
climb, arise, levitate, ascend, excelsior!, assurgent, arbeiration, elevate, raise, boost, acclivous, anabatic and 16 more...
-
ficciones's list
encyclopedic
imbroglio, splendour, brilliance, labyrinth, vast, precipice, ebb and flow, tidal, crevasse, resonate, redolent, prudent and 55 more...
-
HH
Very familiar names, compound words and phrases containing HH or H H
rough hewn, heinrich himmler, high hopes, match head, seventh heaven, bosch, hieronymus, faith hill, rush hour, cornish hen, hash house, faith healer, hush hush and 62 more...
-
Suffix -en
-en
verb: to cause, to become
adjective: materialglisten, hasten, heighten, lengthen, mositen, silken, sharpen, sweeten, woolen, woven, moisten, darken and 4 more...
-
my dictionary
able, abnormally, abroad, absent, abstract, acceptable, acceptance, access, accessible, accession, according to, account and 4551 more...
-
Improv Slanguage
audition, callback, accepting, advancing, character, beat, backline, suggestion, canceling, breaking, cross fade, comedia dell' arte and 25 more...
-
to nounen and adjectiven
Verbs constructed with the -en suffix.
hearten, gladden, flatten, smarten, blacken, frighten, lighten, brighten, liven, shorten, heighten, fatten and 23 more...
-
-en
For the suffix -en
hasten, heighten, lengthen, moisten, silken, sweeten, sharpen, woolen, woven, glisten
Tweets
Looking for tweets for heighten.
Comments
No comments yet...
Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.