/enhance/

/enhance/

Verb.

Pronunciation and accent: ɛnhɑːns, ɛnhæns.

Etymology: from Old French enhaucer, from in- + altiare, from Latin altus (= high).

-) It is dated from the end of 1300.

-) Preterite tense: enhanced (-hanst); preterite participle: enhanced.

-) Present participle: enhancing (hansing).

Transitively: 1. Obsolete: to lift, raise.

2. To increase (a quality, state, etc.); to augment the quality or intensity of.

-) Antonyms of the verb enhance: to lessen, diminish.

-) Synonyms of the verb enhance: to increase, intensify.

-) Translation: intensifier, in French; intensificar, in Spanish; intensificare, in Italian.

To enhance his surprise, his companion told him that the environs of the Castle, except the single winding path by which the portal might be safely approached, were, like the thickets through which they had passed, surrounded with every species of hidden pitfall, snare, and gin, to entrap the wretch who should venture thither without a guide.

 Walter Scott… Quentin Durward 1823

The descriptions of the species have been invariably made from the specimens before me, and in almost every instance without previous reference to the descriptions of others; a circumstance which I have thought it proper to mention, because it may enhance the value of a local catalogue to know to what extent it may be relied on, as affording data to determine how far peculiar situations affect the appearances of species.

John Loudon… Natural history 1832

[…] how was my pleasure enhanced when I found they all three spoke English with the utmost ease and fluency.

Frances Burney… Letters of Madame D'Arblay 1854

[…] the company were laughing instead of crying, and their joy was much enhanced by the news of the departure of Taurus.

Isaac Scribner… Laconia 1856

3. Rarely found: to magnify subjectively; to speak of (something), with an overstatement.

-) Synonym: to exaggerate.

4. To augment the price, cost or worth of.

They were equally unacquainted with that influx of the precious metals from America, which enhanced the money price of commodities in general before it had caused a proportional rise in the wages of labour.

James Mackintosh… The history of England 1831

[…] we found the price of every article of provision greatly enhanced.

John Galt… Voyages and travels… 1812

5. Rarely found: to augment the beauty of.

6. To augment the greatness of; to make greater in importance.

From Norfolk himself, Margaret learned this history of his favourite sister; and the tone of deep feeling, the unconscious tear which started in his eye, as he related it, greatly enhanced the opinion she had formed of his worth.

Hannah Jones… The Scottish Chieftains 1831

By so doing they would greatly enhance the accumulations of domestic wealth, whilst they would be, to all intents and purposes, a self-subsisting people.

Alexander Mackay… The Western World 1849

This extraordinary statement has, I believe, never been contradicted, and its probability is enhanced by several other circumstances.

Thomas Buckle… History of Civilization in England 1858

7. Obsolete: to augment the merit of (someone).

The affliction, say they, which she manifested on the death of the princess enhanced her in the opinion and regard of Don Pedro.

Anna Bray… The Talba 1845

Intransitively: (of something) to increase in price or in wages.

-) Synonym: to decrease.

-) Words derived from ENHANCE: enhanced, enhancement, enhancer, enhancing, enhancive.