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
His character — only referred to as Nitram, so as not to lionize the actual shooter, who remains in prison — plods through the movie like an intimidatingly oversized child.
From New York Times ● Apr. 1, 2022
The question remains, however, how long she can sustain the delicate balance in a nation notoriously demanding over the loyalties of those whom it chooses to lionize.
From Washington Post ● Feb. 18, 2022
One of his antipathies was meeting people who sought to lionize him.
From The Call of the Cumberlands by Charles Neville Buck
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
Francis merely urged everyone to read up on their Gospels, where Jesus consistently assailed the rich, lionized the poor and lingered with the meek instead of the mighty.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 25, 2025
The alleged villains in the trial are former Autonomy CEO Mike Lynch, who once was lionized as shining example of British ingenuity, and Stephen Chamberlain, Autonomy’s former vice president of finance.
From Seattle Times ● Mar. 17, 2024
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
Decades of lionizing men like Nile Jarvis have made his detestable personality not just easy to spot, but queasily appealing.
From Salon ● Nov. 19, 2025
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
Already she’s spent many episodes analyzing, and lionizing, the show’s newest cast member.
From New York Times ● Aug. 18, 2021
And as evangelicalism became a cultural force, it marked its difference from the wider culture by lionizing the family.
From Slate ● Oct. 17, 2019
When we got to the door it was pitch dark; and thus ended our lionizing of the public buildings of Liverpool.
From Lands of the Slave and the Free Cuba, the United States, and Canada by Henry A. Murray
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.
