elevate

Verb

elevate (third-person singular simple present elevates, present participle elevating, simple past and past participle elevated)

1. (transitive) To raise (something) to a higher position.
   • The doctor told me elevating my legs would help reduce the swelling.
   • The Grace or Blessynge of the table to be sayed of chyldren standynge before it, thyr handes eleuated and ioyned to gyder1534, William Marshall, George Joye, A Prymer in Englyshe, London: William Marshall

   Synonyms:

   lift, raise

   Antonyms:

   drop, lower

2. (transitive) To promote (someone) to a higher rank.
   • Hard Fate of Greatness, We so highly Elevated
     Are more expos’d to Censure than the little ones,1682, Aphra Behn, “The Roundheads or, The Good Old Cause”, in et al., London: D. Brown, act I, scene 1, page 6
   • Nothing can set the regal character in a more contemptible point of view, than the various crimes that have elevated men to the supreme dignity.1791 (date written), Mary Wollstonecraft, “The Rights and Involved Duties of Mankind Considered”, in A Vindication of the Rights of Woman: With Strictures on Political and Moral Subjects, London: […]...

   Synonyms:

   exalt, promote, advance, aggrandize, dignify, ennoble, honor, nobilitate, prefer, raise

   Antonyms:

   demote, abase, bring down to size, cut down to size, debase, defame, degrade, demean, depress, discredit

   1. (transitive) To temporarily grant a program additional security privileges to the system to perform a privileged action (usually on the program's request).
      • Did you forget that all programs that modify the registry need to be elevated?
3. (transitive) To confer honor or nobility on (someone).
   • The traditional worldview elevates man as the pinnacle of creation.
   • For loftie type of honour through the glaunce
     Of enuies dart, is downe in dust prostrate;1591, Edmund Spenser, “Virgils Gnat” in Complaints, London: William Ponsonbie, That none, whom fortune freely doth aduaunce, Himselfe therefore to heauen should eleuate

   Synonyms:

   ennoble, exalt, honor, advance, aggrandize, dignify, nobilitate, prefer, promote, raise

4. (transitive) To make (something or someone) more worthy or of greater value.
   • A talented chef can elevate everyday ingredients into gourmet delights.
   • […] if you encourage a young Beginner, who knows but he may elevate his stile a little,1682, John Dryden, “Epistle to the Whigs”, in The Medal, Edinburgh
5. (transitive) To direct (the mind, thoughts, etc.) toward more worthy things.
   • […] the devout Christian improves the Blessings he receives of this inferiour World, to elevate his mind above it:1665, Robert Boyle, Occasional Reflections upon Several Subjects, London: Henry Herringman, Section 4, Chapter 4, pp. 73-74
   • On the whole I would regard serious art as a means to elevate the emotions and educate the spirit […]1999, Ahdaf Soueif, chapter 18, in The Map of Love, New York: Anchor Books, published 2000
6. (transitive) To increase the intensity or degree of (something).
   • Some drugs have the side effect of elevating your blood sugar level.

   Synonyms:

   increase, raise, accelerate, accrue, aggrandize, augment, embiggen, enhance, enlarge, greaten

   Antonyms:

   decrease, diminish, lower, reduce, drop, fall, wane, slump, lessen, go down

   1. (dated, transitive) To increase the loudness of (a sound, especially one's voice).
      • […] the Uncle had more than once elevated his Voice, so as to be heard down Stairs;1749, Henry Fielding, chapter 10, in The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, volume (please specify |volume=I to VI), London: A[ndrew] Millar, […], →OCLC, book XIV, page 191
      • “We’ll see to that,” Wolf Larsen answered, and elevated his voice in a call of “Cooky!”1904, Jack London, chapter 3, in The Sea-Wolf (Macmillan’s Standard Library), New York, N.Y.: Grosset & Dunlap, →OCLC, page 20
7. (obsolete, transitive) To lift the spirits of (someone)
   • […] Hope elevates, and joy
     Bright’ns his Crest,1667, John Milton, “Book VIII”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC...
   • It gives us the spleen […] to see another too happy or too much elevated, as we call it, with any little piece of good fortune.1759, Adam Smith, The Theory of Moral Sentiments, Edinburgh: A. Kincaid and J. Bell, Part 1, Section 2, Chapter 1, p. 20

   Synonyms:

   cheer up, elate, beatify, enrapture, begladden, blissen, bright, cheer, fetch, cherish

   Antonyms:

   depress, sadden, aggrieve, attrist, begloom, begrieve, besorrow, grieve, pain, bring down

8. (colloquial, dated, humorous) To intoxicate in a slight degree; to make (someone) tipsy.
   • Steele entertained them till he was tipsy; when the same wine that stupified him, only served to elevate Addison, who took up the ball just as Steele dropt it, and kept it up for the rest of the evening.1755 October 23, George Colman, Bonnell Thornton, The Connoisseur, volume 2, number 91, London: R. Baldwin, published 1756, page 557
   • [Johnson,] from drinking only water, supposed every body who drank wine to be elevated1791, James Boswell, “(please specify the year)”, in James Boswell, editor, The Life of Samuel Johnson, LL.D. […], London: […] Henry Baldwin, for Charles Dilly, […], →OCLC
9. (Latinism, obsolete) To attempt to make (something) seem less important, remarkable, etc.
   • […] the Arabian Physicians […] endevour to elevate and lessen the thing [i.e. belief in the virgin birth of Jesus], by saying, It is not wholly beyond the force of nature, that a Virgin should conceive […]1660, Jeremy Taylor, Ductor Dubitantium, London: Richard Royston, Volume 1, Chapter 4, Rule 2, p. 126

   Synonyms:

   lessen, detract, disparage, abase, avile, debase, debauch, degrade, depreciate, devalue

Adjective

IPA/ˈɛləvət/

elevate (comparative more elevate, superlative most elevate)

1. (obsolete) Elevated, raised aloft.
   • The sayde crosse was .iii. tymes deuoutly eleuate, and at euery exaltacion, ye Moores beyng within the cytie, roared, howled and cryed,1548, Edward Hall, The Union of the Two Noble and Illustre Families of Lancastre and Yorke, London: Richard Grafton, Henry VII, year 6
   • Others apart sat on a Hill retir’d,
     In thoughts more elevate,1667, John Milton, “Book II”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished...