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Dilate vs Enhance - What's the difference?

dilate | enhance |

As verbs the difference between dilate and enhance

is that dilate is while enhance is (obsolete) to lift, raise up.

dilate

English

Verb

(dilat)
  • To enlarge; to make bigger.
    • The eye doctor put drops in my eye to dilate the pupil so he could see the nerve better.
  • To become wider or larger; to expand.
    • His heart dilates and glories in his strength.
  • (ambitransitive) To speak largely and copiously; to dwell in narration; to enlarge; with "on" or "upon".
  • * Shakespeare
    • Do me the favour to dilate at full / What hath befallen of them and thee till now.
  • * Crabbe
    • But still on their ancient joys dilate .

    Derived terms

    * dilatability * dilatable * dilation * dilative

    See also

    * dilute

    Anagrams

    * English ergative verbs ----

    enhance

    English

    Alternative forms

    * inhance * enhaunce * inhaunce

    Verb

    (enhanc)
  • (obsolete) To lift, raise up.
  • * 1590 , Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene , I.i:
    • nought aghast, his mightie hand enhaunst : / The stroke down from her head vnto her shoulder glaunst.
    (Wyclif Bible)
  • To augment or make something greater.
  • * Southey
    • The reputation of ferocity enhanced the value of their services, in making them feared as well as hated.
  • * 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.
  • To be raised up; to grow larger.
    • A debt enhances rapidly by compound interest.

    Synonyms

    * See also