lionize
Americanverb (used with object)
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to treat (a person) as a celebrity.
to lionize the visiting poet.
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British. to visit or exhibit the objects of interest of (a place).
verb (used without object)
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to pursue celebrities or seek their company.
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British. to visit the objects of interest of a place.
verb
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of lionize
First recorded in 1800–10; lion + -ize ( def. )
Explanation
The lion is often portrayed as the noble king of beasts. As such, to lionize someone is to characterize them as being highly important and distinguished, like a great and honorable leader. In literature and art, the lion is often used as a symbol of pride, strength, courage, and nobility. So when you lionize someone, you attribute to them all those impressive traits. Sports stars and political leaders are often lionized by their supporters. Some people are uncomfortable with being lionized. After rescuing a puppy from a frozen pond, the local teenager who did the good deed might resist people's efforts to lionize him, saying, "I'm no hero! I only did what anybody else would do!"
Vocabulary lists containing lionize
100 SAT Words Beginning with "J," "K," and "L"
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30 GRE Words Beginning with "K" "L""M" and "N" and "O"
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The Picture of Dorian Gray
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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.
See Examples For:
There’s also a whole bit in the courtroom of David swatting at a fly as his attorney attempts to lionize him.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 8, 2024
They like the stories that either demonize or lionize these people.
From Salon ● Mar. 25, 2023
Glew himself, importantly, is never the target of the joke: the movie has too much affection for its subject to ridicule his eccentricities, even gently, preferring to lionize him instead.
From New York Times ● Oct. 20, 2022
“We foolishly lionize athletes and make them heroes because they can hit a ball or catch one,” Mr. Russell once said.
From Washington Post ● Jul. 31, 2022
I forget whether I told you that the Sedgwicks had sent me a friend of theirs, an American country clergyman, to lionize about London, which I have been doing for the last three days.
From Records of Later Life by Fanny Kemble
As Greenspan left office in 2005, Greenspan was lionized as the “maestro,” or the greatest central banker of the century.
From MarketWatch ● May 10, 2026
Lutheran pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer, murdered by the SS before he could be freed by Allied troops, is lionized in American churches, and his letters from prison became standard reading in Bible studies.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 7, 2025
Teachers may be lionized by Hollywood, but in practice they’re underpaid, overworked and disrespected.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 6, 2024
At Horatio Alger, he moved into the inner circle, a cluster of extraordinarily wealthy, largely conservative members who lionized him and all that he had achieved.
From New York Times ● Jul. 9, 2023
Outstanding oarsmen were lionized in the national press, even in the era of Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, and Joe DiMaggio.
From "The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics" by Daniel James Brown
But writer-director Todd Komarnicki’s aggressively lionizing, faith-driven movie about Bonhoeffer seems uninterested in any complexity about pacifism and violence coexisting in one man.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 22, 2024
Wakanda is mythical, but it lacks the problematic history rewrite required to make the forthcoming Viola Davis-starring “The Woman King” and its lionizing of a kingdom built on the slave trade palatable.
From Salon ● Aug. 20, 2022
Stop lionizing him and his ilk, and instead cover people who are responding productively.
From Washington Post ● Jul. 8, 2022
Already she’s spent many episodes analyzing, and lionizing, the show’s newest cast member.
From New York Times ● Aug. 18, 2021
She rather enjoyed showing off her lion, whose simple dignity was quite impervious to lionizing.
From Why Joan? by Eleanor Mercein Kelly
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Get a wordDefinitions 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.
