beautify

English

Etymology

From Middle English beutifien, from Old French beaute (“beauty”), from Latin bellus (“beautiful, fine”), + -ify, from Latin facio (“make”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈbjuː.tɪ.faɪ/

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

Verb

beautify (third-person singular simple present beautifies, present participle beautifying, simple past and past participle beautified)

1. (transitive) To make beautiful; to increase the beauty of.

   Synonyms: adorn, decorate, ornament, prettify

   Antonyms: blight, deface, disfigure, mar, uglify

   • 1592, Robert Greene, Greene's Groats-Worth of Wit, London: William Wright, “Robertoes Tale”^[1]

     […] there is an vpstart Crow, beautified with our feathers, that with his Tygers hart wrapt in a Players hyde, supposes he is as well able to bombast out a blanke verse as the best of you:

   • c. 1607–1608, William Shakeſpeare, The Late, And much admired Play, Called Pericles, Prince of Tyre. […], London: Imprinted at London for Henry Goſſon,  […], published 1609, →OCLC, [Act V, scene 3]:

     And now, / This ornament [i.e. beard] / Makes me look dismal will I clip to form; / And what this fourteen years no razor touch’d, / To grace thy marriage-day, I’ll beautify.

   • 1817 December​, [Jane Austen], chapter V, in Persuasion; published in Northanger Abbey: And Persuasion. […], volume (please specify |volume=III or IV), London: John Murray, […], 1818, →OCLC, page 89:

     […] she was at the other end of the room, beautifying a nosegay;

   • 1909, Lucy Maud Montgomery, Anne of Avonlea, Boston: L.C. Page, Chapter 15, p. 171,^[2]

     “ […] I’m so thankful for friendship. It beautifies life so much.”

   • 1954, Sam Selvon, The Lonely Londoners, London: Longman, p. 109,^[3]

     ‘Boy, you take a big chance,’ Moses say. ‘Them pigeons there to beautify the park, not to eat. The people over here will kill you if you touch a fly.’

   1. (computing) Synonym of pretty-print
2. (intransitive, rare) To become beautiful.
   • 1719, Joseph Addison, Maxims, Observations, and Reflections, London: E. Curll, “Upon the Immortality of the Soul,” p. 88,^[4]

     […] it must be a Prospect pleasing to God himself, to see his Creation for ever beautifying in his Eyes, and drawing nearer to him, by greater Degrees of Resemblance.

3. (intransitive, rare) To make oneself beautiful.
   • 2002, Alice Sebold, The Lovely Bones, London: Picador, Chapter 13, p. 156,^[5]

     She’d felt silly when she first put cucumbers on her eyes (to diminish puffiness), or oatmeal on her face (to cleanse the pores and absorb excess oils), or egg yolks in her hair (to make it shine). Her use of groceries had even made my mother laugh, then wonder if she should start to beautify.

Related terms

• beautification
• beautifier
• beautifiable
• beautifying

Translations

to make beautiful or more beautiful

• Arabic: جَمَّلَ‎ (jammala)
• Armenian: զարդարել (zardarel)
• Bulgarian: разкрасявам (razkrasjavam), разхубавявам (razhubavjavam)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 美化 (zh) (měihuà)

• Czech: krášlit
• Esperanto: beligi
• Finnish: kaunistaa
• French: embellir
• German: verschönern, ausschmücken
• Greek: ομορφαίνω (omorfaíno), καλλωπίζω (kallopízo)
• Hebrew: ייפה‎ (yipá), קישט‎ (kishét)
• Hungarian: szépít
• Icelandic: fegra
• Ido: beligar
• Irish: áilligh, breáthaigh, maisigh, barr maise a chur ar
• Italian: abbellire
• Japanese: 美しくする (utsukushiku suru), 美化する (bika suru)
• Latin: decoro, extollo, orno, venusto
• Maltese: jsebbħu, sebbah
• Maori: whakapaipai, whakarāwai, whakapīwari, whakaātaahua
• Nheengatu: mupuranga, mpuranga
• Norwegian: forskjønne
• Persian: زیبیدن‎ (zibidan), برازیدن‎ (barâzidan), زیبادن‎
• Polish: upiększać impf, upiększyć pf
• Portuguese: embelezar
• Romanian: înfrumuseța
• Russian: украша́ть (ukrašátʹ)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: (Ekavian) улѐпшати, (Ijekavian) уљѐпшати

  Roman: (Ekavian) ulèpšati, (Ijekavian) uljèpšati (sh)

• Spanish: embellecer
• Turkish: güzelleştirmek
• Volapük: jönön, jönükön
• Yiddish: באַשײַנען‎ (bashaynen)