Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- v. To alter the outward appearance of; transform. See Synonyms at convert.
- v. To exalt or glorify.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- To transform; change the outward form or appearance of: specifically used of the transfiguration of Christ.
- To give an elevated or glorified appearance or character to; elevate and glorify; idealize: often with direct or indirect allusion to the transfiguration of Christ.
- Synonyms Transmute, etc. See transform.
Wiktionary
- v. To transform the outward appearance of something; to convert into a different form, state or substance.
- v. To glorify or exalt something or someone.
GNU Webster's 1913
- v. To change the outward form or appearance of; to metamorphose; to transform.
- v. Especially, to change to something exalted and glorious; to give an ideal form to.
WordNet 3.0
- v. elevate or idealize, in allusion to Christ's transfiguration
- v. change completely the nature or appearance of
Etymologies
- Middle English transfiguren, from Old French transfigurer, from Latin trānsfigūrāre : trāns-, trans- + figūra, form; see dheigh- in Indo-European roots. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“The word transfigure means, to change the appearance or form.”
“Parris describes this as music's power to "transfigure": "I am already forgetting what Gordon Brown said to his conference in Bournemouth this week.”
“Ai spent those same years scavenging Beijing's back alleys and antique shops for Silk Road materials he could transfigure into art, like Marcel Duchamp once did with a urinal or Andy Warhol did with a soup can.”
“The answer may still be no, but either way the duo of John Flansburgh and John Linnell have come to own their quirks and transfigure them into a lasting kind of cool.”
“Above all, that meant the end of the idea of the artist as shaman, a person able to transform and transfigure, who could conjure one thing, a work of art, out of another, its raw materials and constituent parts.”
The Wall Street Journal: A Magical Metamorphosis of the Ordinary
“Or, more, a crusade — to invent a new culture for quasi-public schools and transfigure inner-city education in New York.”
“Ben also confessed to her that he tried for years to "pray the gay away," but he's done trying to transfigure himself now.”
“However, within the spiritual experience, we can know something for a MOMENT and that MOMENT is all it takes to transfigure our life forever, to alter our relationship to everything, and change us in the deepest sanctum of our being.”
The Huffington Post: Natasha Dern: Knowing: The Power Of Spiritual Reality
“Thus began a process designed to transfigure the past sages of Israel into heroes of quasi-divine dimensions.”
“Perhaps Mr. Cameron understands clearly what he means by it, but as an animating idea it still remains too vague to transfigure government-paid summer camp into something more noble than what it is.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘transfigure’.
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ghost
This is Ghost List 2 ( the kind that go 'boo!' ) :P
( open list )
more:
http://www.wordnik.com/lists/macabrephantom, spectral, specter, spectre, spooky, poltergeist, haunt, spirit, banshee, cryptic, shadow, phantasm and 311 more...
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"Brave New World"
From the book "Brave New World" by Aldous Huxley, which I purchased by accident.
brevity, florid, callow, sibilant, boskage, apopletic, asceptic, setentious, decant, predestine, viviparous, proliferate and 7 more...
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big book gre
abase, abbess, abbey, abbot, abdicate, abdomen, abdominal, abduction, abed, aberration, abet, abeyance and 6691 more...
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the name of the rose
pleasing words I encounter whilst reading umberto eco's novel of the same name.
matins, lauds, prime, terce, sext, nones, vespers, compline, usurper, simoniac, heresiarch, malefactor and 230 more...
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tongue tippers
the ones that are just on the tip of the tongue, the ones that should be made celebrated members of my vocabulary, thank you
natant, prurient, antipodal, puerile, equipoise, choler, sui generis, exemplary, lodestar, rhetoric, bon mot, adjudicate and 91 more...
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difficult-list47
tonsure, torpor, torrent, torrid, tortuous, totter, touchstone, tout, tract, tractable, traduce, transcribe and 20 more...
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T
words starting with letter t
tonsure, topography, torpor, torrent, torrid, tortuous, totter, touchstone, touchy, tout, tract, tractable and 78 more...
Tweets
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