Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • transitive verb To glorify; exalt.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To consecrate or exalt to the dignity of a deity; deify.
  • To pay excessive honor or ascribe superhuman qualities to; glorify; exalt.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • transitive verb To exalt to the dignity of a deity; to declare to be a god; to deify; to glorify.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb deify, to convert into a god.
  • verb exalt, glorify

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb deify or glorify

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From apotheosis +‎ -ize

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Examples

  • This was rather a rash venture in prognostication, for it may be easy enough to "apotheosize" the horse, but to what idyllic heights the automobile is destined to ultimately reach no one really knows.

    The Automobilist Abroad

  • The same Milos Forman who felt the brunt of Czechoslovakia's Communist censors was destined to apotheosize Mr. Flynt's contributions to the bizarre saga of American liberty.

    It's 'Libertine' Jesse Ventura Vs. the G.O.P. Culture Jihad 1999

  • But rather than apotheosize about some potential, let's talk about realities.

    Press Briefing By Mack Mclarty And Richard Riley ITY National Archives 1998

  • It is fitting that a playwright whose best works apotheosize the platitude compiled a book on the theater crammed with platitudes.

    Ionesco: the Theater of the Banal Sontag, Susan 1964

  • They are but the nerves and muscles, the sinews and the blood of the being we apotheosize -- the mere aids of the mighty brain, the seat of the controlling spirit of the whole.

    Harper's New Monthly Magazine, Vol. 3, July, 1851 Various

  • The old author dreamed that the heroes of the Trojan War were changed by Zeus into the warriors of the mimic strife in order that such renowned exploits should be perpetuated among men forever: rather must we reverse the dream, and apotheosize the powers of the board, that they may appear in the sieges, heroisms, and victories of life.

    The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 05, No. 32, June, 1860 Various

  • Many of the martyrs whose memory we revere, of the saints we apotheosize, of the heroes we enshrine in history, are one-third fraud and two-thirds fake.

    The Complete Works of Brann the Iconoclast, Volume 12 1919

  • It is the main-spring of many acts we loudly praise, the lode-star of men we apotheosize, is oftimes the warp and woof even of the mantle of charity, which, like a well-filled purse -- or a tariff compromise -- covers a multitude of sins.

    The Complete Works of Brann the Iconoclast, Volume 12 1919

  • This florid and fulsome eulogy was written by that singular being who could thus flatter, and almost apotheosize, the inventor in public, while in secret he was doing everything to thwart him, and who never, as long as he lived, ceased to antagonize him, and later accused him of having claimed the credit of an invention all the essentials of which were invented by others.

    Letters and Journals 02] Morse, Samuel F B 1914

  • In all ages, in order to justify the passions, it was necessary to apotheosize them.

    Ninon de L'Enclos the Celebrated Beauty of the 17th Century Robinson, Charles Henry 1903

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