enhance
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English
[edit]Alternative forms
[edit]Etymology
[edit]From Middle English enhauncen, anhaunsen, from Anglo-Norman anhauncer (“enhance, raise”), from Vulgar Latin *inaltiāre (“raise”), derived from Latin in + altus (“high”). The /h/ in Old French was taken from haut (“high”), where it resulted from Frankish influence.
Pronunciation
[edit]- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /ɪnˈhɑːns/
- (General American) IPA(key): /ɪnˈhæns/, /ɛnˈhæns/
Audio (US): (file) Audio (UK): (file) - Rhymes: -ɑːns, -æns
Verb
[edit]enhance (third-person singular simple present enhances, present participle enhancing, simple past and past participle enhanced)
- (obsolete) To lift, raise up.
- 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book I, Canto I”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:
- nought aghast, his mightie hand enhaunst: / The stroke down from her head vnto her shoulder glaunst.
- To augment or make something greater.
- 1831, Robert Southey, Sir Thomas More: Or Colloquies on the Progress and Prospects of Society, page 214:
- They had no character to preserve, except for courage; and perhaps the reputation of ferocity enhanced the value of their services, in making them feared as well as hated by the people.
- 2000, Mordecai Roshwald, Liberty: Its Meaning and Scope, page 155:
- A hereditary monarch relies on pomp and ceremony, which enhance the respect for the institution
- To improve something by adding features.
- 1986, Maggie Righetti, Knitting in Plain English, page 192:
- A pom-pom to top off a stocking cap, a fringe to feather the edge of a shawl, tassels to define the points of an afghan, these are just a few of the delightful little goodies that enhance handknit things.
- (intransitive) To be raised up; to grow larger.
- A debt enhances rapidly by compound interest.
- (radiology) To take up contrast agent (for an organ, tissue, or lesion).
Synonyms
[edit]- heighten
- See also Thesaurus:improve
Antonyms
[edit]Translations
[edit]augment or make something greater — see also augment
|
improve something by adding features
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Middle English
[edit]Verb
[edit]enhance
- Alternative form of enhauncen
Categories:
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- Rhymes:English/ɑːns
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