Verb

To praise, glorify (someone or something, especially god).

* 1526 , (William Tyndale), trans. Bible , Acts X:

For they herde them speake with tonges, and magnify God.

* 1644 , (John Milton), (Aeropagitica) :

For he who freely magnifies what hath been nobly done, and fears not to declare as freely what might be done better, gives ye the best cov'nant of his fidelity [...].

To make (something) larger or more important.

* Grew

The least error in a small quantitybe proportionately magnified .

* {{quote-book, year=2006, author=(Edwin Black), title=Internal Combustion

, chapter=2 citation , passage=But through the oligopoly, charcoal fuel proliferated throughout London's trades and industries. By the 1200s, brewers and bakers, tilemakers, glassblowers, pottery producers, and a range of other craftsmen all became hour-to-hour consumers of charcoal. This only magnified the indispensable nature of the oligopolists.}}

To make (someone or something) appear greater or more important than it is; to intensify, exaggerate.

To make (something) appear larger by means of a lens, magnifying glass, telescope etc.

* {{quote-magazine, year=2013, month=July-August, author= Catherine Clabby

, magazine=(American Scientist), title= Focus on Everything , passage=Not long ago, it was difficult to produce photographs of tiny creatures with every part in focus. That’s because the lenses that are excellent at magnifying tiny subjects produce a narrow depth of field. A photo processing technique called focus stacking has changed that.}}

(intransitive, slang, obsolete) To have effect; to be of importance or significance.

(Spectator)

Verb

To become bigger, especially due to being engorged.

* Shakespeare

Monarchs to behold the swelling scene!

To cause to become bigger.

Rains and dissolving snow swell the rivers in spring.

* Atterbury

It is low ebb with his accuser when such peccadilloes are put to swell the charge.

* {{quote-book, year=1905, author=

, title= , chapter=2 citation , passage=For this scene, a large number of supers are engaged, and in order to further swell the crowd, practically all the available stage hands have to ‘walk on’ dressed in various coloured dominoes, and all wearing masks.}}

* 2013 June 18, (Simon Romero), " Protests Widen as Brazilians Chide Leaders," New York Times (retrieved 21 June 2013):

After a harsh police crackdown last week fueled anger and swelled protests, President Dilma Rousseff, a former guerrilla who was imprisoned under the dictatorship and has now become the target of pointed criticism herself, tried to appease dissenters by embracing their cause on Tuesday.

To grow gradually in force or loudness.

The organ music swelled .

To raise to arrogance; to puff up; to inflate.

to be swelled with pride or haughtiness

To be raised to arrogance.

* Shakespeare

Here he comes, swelling like a turkey cock.

* Sir Walter Scott

You swell at the tartan, as the bull is said to do at scarlet.

To be elated; to rise arrogantly.

* Dryden

Your equal mind yet swells not into state.

To be turgid, bombastic, or extravagant.

swelling''' words; a '''swelling style

To protuberate; to bulge out.

A cask swells in the middle.