enlarger

American

[en-lahr-jer] / ɛnˈlɑr dʒər /

noun

Photography.

an apparatus used for making projection prints, having a head for holding, illuminating, and projecting a film negative and a bed for holding a sheet of sensitized printing paper.

enlarger British

/ ɪnˈlɑːdʒə /

noun

an optical instrument for making enlarged photographic prints in which a negative is brightly illuminated and its enlarged image is focused onto a sheet of sensitized paper

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Etymology

Origin of enlarger

1535–45, for an earlier sense; enlarge + -er ¹

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

But we had an enlarger to print — which actually became your room later.

From Los Angeles Times • Aug. 19, 2024

In his studio, with a photo enlarger in the corner and an orange tree outside the window, his stacks of albums show the stadium lights Escobar installed for soccer fields in working-class neighborhoods.

From Washington Post • Dec. 28, 2021

A horizontal enlarger beamed the negative image across a room onto raw photographic paper on the opposite wall.

From New York Times • Oct. 16, 2020

A bathroom has been transformed into a darkroom, complete with a custom-made Leitz enlarger and a fibre print washer installed in the claw-foot tub.

From The New Yorker • Jun. 13, 2019

He slipped it under the lens and turned the enlarger back on.

From "Shooting Kabul" by N. H. Senzai

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023