aggrandizer

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ag·gran·dize

(ə-grăn′dīz′, ăg′rən-)

tr.v. ag·gran·dized, ag·gran·diz·ing, ag·gran·diz·es

a. To increase the scope of; extend: aggrandized the authority of his position.

b. To make greater in power, influence, stature, or reputation: "The executive branch had aggrandized itself during the war at the expense of the legislative branch" (David Herbert Donald).

2. To consider to be or cause to appear greater than is really the case; exaggerate: aggrandized his contributions to the project.

[French agrandir, agrandiss-, from Old French : a-, to (from Latin ad-; see ad-) + grandir, to grow larger (from Latin grandīre, from grandis, large).]

ag·gran′dize·ment (ə-grăn′dĭz-mənt, -dīz′-) n.

ag·gran′diz′er n.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

References in periodicals archive ?

Chavez, the inventor and aggrandizer of the public health system, had such little trust in his own system that after he was diagnosed with cancer he flew to Cuba to undergo medical treatment.

A triumphant failure

However, on 5 subscales viz., Undisciplined Child; Compliant Surrender; Detached Self-Soother; Self aggrandizer; Bully and Attack, the reliability falls below the acceptable index (ranging from a = .41 to [alpha] = .56, with a mean of .45).

Translation, adaptation, and cross language validation of short Schema Mode Inventory (SMI)

So not only would a limit on simultaneity have modest benefits, but it would also ignore the potentially greater aggrandizer.

Bootstrapping

"Presidential corruption" and "power aggrandizer" are among the persistent sobriquets hurled at the post-Watergate office.