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Enlarge vs Enhance - What's the difference?

enlarge | enhance |

In intransitive terms the difference between enlarge and enhance

is that enlarge is to speak at length upon or on (some subject while enhance is to be raised up; to grow larger.

As verbs the difference between enlarge and enhance

is that enlarge is to make larger while enhance is to lift, raise up.

enlarge

English

Verb

(enlarg)
  • To make larger.
  • To increase the capacity of; to expand; to give free scope or greater scope to; also, to dilate, as with joy, affection, etc.
    • Knowledge enlarges the mind.
  • * Bible, 2 Corinthians vi. 11
    • O ye Corinthians, our heart is enlarged .
  • To speak at length upon'' or ''on (some subject)
  • * 1664 , (Samuel Butler), Hudibras 2.2.68:
    • I shall enlarge upon the Point.
  • (archaic) To release; to set at large.
  • * 1580 , (Philip Sidney), Arcadia 329:
    • Like a Lionesse lately enlarged .
  • * 1596 , (Edmund Spenser), The Faerie Queene , IV.8:
    • Finding no meanes how I might us enlarge , / But if that Dwarfe I could with me convay, / I lightly snatcht him up and with me bore away.
  • * Barrow
    • It will enlarge us from all restraints.
  • * 1599 , (William Shakespeare), Henry V , Act II Scene II:
    • Uncle of Exeter, enlarge the man committed yesterday, that rail'd against our person. We consider it was excess of wine that set him on.
  • (nautical) To get more astern or parallel with the vessel's course; to draw aft; said of the wind.
  • (legal) To extend the time allowed for compliance with (an order or rule).
    • (Abbott)

    Related terms

    * magnify * supersize

    References

    *

    Anagrams

    * *

    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