ENNOBLE

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does ennoble mean? 

• ENNOBLE (verb)
  The verb ENNOBLE has 2 senses:

1. confer dignity or honor upon

2. give a title to someone; make someone a member of the nobility

  Familiarity information: ENNOBLE used as a verb is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• ENNOBLE (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they ennoble    ... he / she / it ennobles   
Past simple: ennobled   
Past participle: ennobled   
-ing form: ennobling   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Confer dignity or honor upon

Classified under:

Verbs of political and social activities and events

Synonyms:

dignify; ennoble

Context example:

He was dignified with a title

Hypernyms (to "ennoble" is one way to...):

honor; honour; reward (bestow honor or rewards upon)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Something ----s somebody
Something ----s something

Sense 2

Meaning:

Give a title to someone; make someone a member of the nobility

Classified under:

Verbs of political and social activities and events

Synonyms:

ennoble; entitle; gentle

Hypernyms (to "ennoble" is one way to...):

advance; elevate; kick upstairs; promote; raise; upgrade (give a promotion to or assign to a higher position)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "ennoble"):

baronetise; baronetize (confer baronetcy upon)

lord (make a lord of someone)

dub; knight (raise (someone) to knighthood)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s somebody

Derivation:

ennoblement (the act of raising someone to the nobility)

 Context examples 

The very thought of her ennobled and purified him, made him better, and made him want to be better.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

What instances must pass before them of ardent, disinterested, self-denying attachment, of heroism, fortitude, patience, resignation: of all the conflicts and all the sacrifices that ennoble us most.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)

A high place at court was given to him, and he spent many years at Windsor under the second Richard and the fourth Henry—where he received the honor of the Garter, and won the name of being a brave soldier, a true-hearted gentleman, and a great lover and patron of every art and science which refines or ennobles life.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

I am sure I loved that baby quite as truly, quite as tenderly, with greater purity and more disinterestedness, than can enter into the best love of a later time of life, high and ennobling as it is.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

It does not appear, from all you have said, how any one perfection is required toward the procurement of any one station among you; much less, that men are ennobled on account of their virtue; that priests are advanced for their piety or learning; soldiers, for their conduct or valour; judges, for their integrity; senators, for the love of their country; or counsellors for their wisdom.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

And he was ennobled, as well, by the loftiness of thought and beauty he found in the books.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)