ennoble
Americanverb (used with object)
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to elevate in degree, excellence, or respect; dignify; exalt.
a personality ennobled by true generosity.
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to confer a title of nobility on.
verb
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to make noble, honourable, or excellent; dignify; exalt
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to raise to a noble rank; confer a title of nobility upon
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of ennoble
1425–75; late Middle English ennobelen < Middle French, Old French ennoblir. See en- 1, noble
Explanation
To ennoble someone is to make them a Lord or a Baroness — to bestow a noble title upon them. The Queen of England has the power to ennoble people, turning Paul McCartney into Sir Paul McCartney, for example. One way to use the verb ennoble is to mean, literally, "make someone a noble or a member of the nobility." It can also mean "bestow or lend dignity to" or "make dignified." You could say, "Reading great books ennobles the mind," or "Treating others with kindness ennobles a person." Ennoble comes from the Old French ennoblir, from the prefix en-, "put in," and the Latin root nobilis, "excellent, superior, or splendid."
Vocabulary lists containing ennoble
A Vindication of the Rights of Woman
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"A Place to Call Home" by Scott Bittle and Jonathan Rochkind
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The Prince
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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.
One of U2’s enduring strengths has been the way its songs ennoble yearning and turbulence.
From New York Times • Mar. 17, 2023
The number of people who, out of civic generosity, think that they can enlarge or ennoble their selves by giving their energies to a good larger than themselves?
From Salon • May 27, 2019
For Hegel, as Hägglund reads him, a religious institution is really just a community that has come together to ennoble “a governing set of norms—a shared understanding of what counts as good and just.”
From The New Yorker • May 13, 2019
“I think I know who Virginians are — I think they want somebody who will ennoble and uplift and motivate rather than divide.”
From Washington Times • Nov. 5, 2018
Does not Christianity stimulate the mind to struggle against difficulties, ennoble the struggle by investing it with the dignity of a duty, and render the duty delightful by the hope of a heavenly reward?
From Old Wine and New Occasional Discourses by Cross, Joseph
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
