Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- v. To look on or treat (a person) as a celebrity.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- To treat as a lion, or as an object of curiosity and interest. See lion, n., 6.
- To exhibit objects of curiosity to.
- To visit or explore as a sight-seer: as, to lionize Niagara.
- To visit the lions or objects of interest or curiosity in a place. Also spelled lionise.
Wiktionary
- v. To treat (a person) as if he were important, or a celebrity.
- v. To visit famous places in order to revere them.
- v. To behave as a lion.
GNU Webster's 1913
- v. To treat or regard as a lion or object of great interest.
- v. To show the lions or objects of interest to; to conduct about among objects of interest.
WordNet 3.0
- v. assign great social importance to
Examples
“The verb "lionize" "to treat as a celebrity" suggests the idea that lions are deserving of attention, perhaps very fitting for the King of the Jungle.”
“There was either a desire to say that it was my fault, that if I had just not behaved so badly everything would have been fine, or there was a desire to kind of lionize me as some kind of hero figure.”
“They criticize King Saul heavily, lionize David, praise Solomon and deplore the division of the country into northern and southern kingdoms.”
The Huffington Post: Douglas Knight: Biblical Israel's History Viewed From Inside And Out
“It would still have been a mistake to lionize Witt for choosing only the rite of passage, football, over its intended outcome, the civic leadership cherished by Cecil Rhodes and, once upon a time, by Yale.”
The Huffington Post: Jim Sleeper: Why Yale Fumbled Its Quarterback's Rhodes Scholarship Pass
“They lionize the rich in the abstract because they want that aristocracy to exist.”
Think Progress » Steele: ‘Trust Me, After Taxes, A Million Dollars Is Not A Lot Of Money’
“Interesting comparison with Hawthorne, but here's a thought ... why is it that we lionize surrealism when it comes from South American writers, but dismiss it when it comes from the likes of Cheever?”
“Then there's the rather uncomfortable fact that on the one hand we lionize the institution of marriage in America and then lock its doors to most gay couples.”
The Huffington Post: Sara Wilson: How I Learned To Embrace Weddings
“But conservatives who lionize Smith as the founder of the "free market" concept forget that Smith didn't believe in corporations that issued stock.”
“For all those who lionize Chuck Palahniuk, I am sure this will go bring about blowback.”
“The aggressive movement to lionize charters and to demonize public schools is scary because there is so much money and power pushing this agenda.”
The Washington Post: Ravitch on how wrong 'Superman' really is
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘lionize’.
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GRE Barrons Wordlist
A complete Barron's Wordlist for GRE preparation. Your online flashcard replacement.
abase, abash, abate, abbreviate, abdicate, aberrant, aberration, abet, abeyance, abhor, abject, abjure and 4084 more...
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Ayatollah's list
Trinkets of lexical goodness.
floccinaucinihili..., quomodocunquize, curmudgeon, illaqueate, ipsissimosity, heterochthonous, hakenkreuz, forisfamiliate, appropinquate, apodyopsis, baryphony, cachinnate and 146 more...
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Lions and tigers and—Well, just lions, truthfully.
million, billion, trillion, quadrillion, quintillion, sextillion, septillion, octillion, nonillion, decillion, undecillion, duodecillion and 66 more...
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Beginning with L
luteous, Lydian, lyterian, lutulent, labarum, language, listen, laurels, lithesome, labiomancy, labrose, laches and 27 more...
jwjarvis the right lionizes Ronald Reagan, the left lionizes FDR Sep 24, 2010
sweetzingiber to treat as a celebrity Jul 31, 2009