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
It refuses to lionize Logan, but it's still a tough act to follow.
From Salon ● May 22, 2023
Mr. Ostin’s unflagging support for artists led them to lionize him.
From New York Times ● Aug. 1, 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
Who, in the name of the twelve Caesars, has Mrs. Legend got to lionize, yonder, with the white summit and the dark base?' asked the writer of odes.
From Home as Found by James Fenimore Cooper
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
Mr. Rusesabagina was lionized globally after the 2004 release of “Hotel Rwanda,” which depicted him as savior of more than 1,200 people at the luxury hotel he managed during the genocide.
From New York Times ● Apr. 3, 2023
And though it's clear to anyone with an ounce of logic that they are a pack of charlatans, they're lionized throughout the Empire not just as immortal, but as oracles and mind-readers.
From "An Ember in the Ashes" by Sabaa Tahir
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
Scientists, the press and the public alike tend to tell and retell these success stories, lionizing intrepid researchers.
From New York Times ● Feb. 21, 2023
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
And as evangelicalism became a cultural force, it marked its difference from the wider culture by lionizing the family.
From Slate ● Oct. 17, 2019
All the preceding was written four days ago: cut short by the sudden entrance of Moore, whom I have been lionizing ever since.
From Letters of Edward FitzGerald in two volumes, Vol. 1 by William Aldis Wright
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.
