embolden
Syllables: em·bold·en/ɛmˈbəʊld(ə)n/US/ɛmˈboʊld(ə)n/
embolden verb: to render (someone) bolder or more courageous; to encourage, to hearten.
Verb
embolden (third-person singular simple present emboldens, present participle emboldening, simple past and past participle emboldened)
- To render (someone) bolder or more courageous; to encourage, to hearten.
- Steel your thoughts, ſharp your reſolue, imboldẽ your spirit, graſp your ſvvords; alarum miſchief, & vvith an vndãted brovv, out ſcout the grim oppoſition of most menacing perill.1600 or 1601 (date written), I. M. [i.e., John Marston], Antonios Reuenge. The Second Part. […], London: […] [Richard Bradock] for Thomas Fisher, and are to be soulde [by Matthew Lownes] […]...
- I haue heard many ſuch things: miſerable comforters are ye all. Shall vaine words haue an ende? or what emboldeneth thee, that thou anſwereſt?1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Job 16:2–3, column 2
- Synonyms:
- bolden
- To format (text) in boldface.
- This note introduces several additional features of LATEX: […] ▪ The use of text style commands, including the \emph command to emphasize text, the \textbf command to embolden text, and the \texttt command to produce typewriter style text.1999, George [A.] Grätzer, “Typing Text”, in First Steps in LATEX, Boston, Mass.: Birkhäuser; New York, N.Y.: Springer, →ISBN, page 8
- The [HTML] tags <p></p> indicate paragraphs breaks, and we have included some basic text formatting: <em></em> for emphasis (typically italics), <u></u> for underline and <strong></strong> to embolden text.2004, Jason Whittaker, “Web Design”, in The Cyberspace Handbook, London; New York, N.Y.: Routledge, →ISBN, part III (Reading/Writing Cyberspace), page 216
embolden meaning in Urdu, Malayalam and Kannada
embolden in Urdu
- ہمت بڑھانا, پیٹھ ٹھونکنا
embolden in Malayalam
- encourage, fortify, make brave
- ധെെര്യപ്പെടുത്തുക, പ്രോത്സാഹിപ്പക്കുക, ശക്തിപ്പെടുത്തുക, ബലപ്പെടുത്തുക, ദൃഢീകരിക്കുക, ധെെര്യം കൊടുക്കുക
embolden in Kannada
- ಹುರಿದುಂಬಿಸು
Examples of embolden in a sentence
- Give me a reaſon; vvhat is it that ſtirrs thee to reply upon me, VVhat emboldeneth thee to anſvver?1650, Joseph Caryl, “Job, Chap. 16, Vers. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 [Verse 3]”, in An Exposition with Practicall Observations Continued upon the...
- Nay, now, Luis, thou emboldenest me to remind thee that I expressed a wish that thou would'st not go on thy last voyage to the north, and yet thou didst depart!1840, [James Fenimore Cooper], chapter V, in Mercedes of Castile: Or, The Voyage to Cathay. […], volume I, Philadelphia, Pa.: Lea and...
- In the day I called, Thou answeredst me; / Thou emboldenedst me with strength in my soul.1871, “[Psalm] CXXXVIII [verse 3]”, in William Kay, transl., The Psalms […], London; Oxford, Oxfordshire: Rivingtons, →OCLC, pages 434–435:
- Indeed, far from emboldening the peasant, that fear probably had more of an intimidating influence.1999, Suzanne Pepper, “The Return to Land Reform”, in Civil War in China: The Political Struggle 1945–1999, Lanham, Md.: Rowman &...
Synonyms of embolden
Forms of embolden
| third-person singular present | emboldens |
|---|---|
| present participle | emboldening |
| past participle | emboldened |
| past | emboldened |
| alternative form | imbolden |
| second-person singular present (archaic) | emboldenest |
| second-person singular past (archaic) | emboldenedst |
| third-person singular present (archaic) | emboldeneth |
Origin of embolden
From bold (adjective) + em- -en (variant of en- -en (circumfix forming transitive verbs denoting an increase in, or intensification of, the quality denoted by the enclosed word)). Compare Middle English embolden, enbolden (“to make bold, encourage”) (modern English embold, enbold, imbold (obsolete)), and inboldysshen (“to embolden, encourage”).
Words formed from embolden
- emboldener
- emboldening
- emboldenment
- reembolden
- re-embolden
Words that rhyme with embolden
Questions about embolden
- What does embolden mean?
- Embolden means to render (someone) bolder or more courageous; to encourage, to hearten.
- What is embolden in Urdu?
- Embolden in Urdu is ہمت بڑھانا, پیٹھ ٹھونکنا. See Embolden meaning in Urdu.
- How do you use embolden in a sentence?
- Give me a reaſon; vvhat is it that ſtirrs thee to reply upon me, VVhat emboldeneth thee to anſvver?
- What part of speech is embolden?
- Embolden is a verb.
- How do you pronounce embolden?
- Embolden is pronounced /ɛmˈbəʊld(ə)n/ (UK).
- What is the past tense of embolden?
- The past tense of embolden is emboldened.
Words near embolden in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: embolden (page history and authors); embolden (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); embolden (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license); embolden (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-embolden.wav.
Cite this entry: “embolden.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/embolden. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.