aggrandize

“Experience shows that it is not wise to trust human cupidity where it has the opportunity to aggrandize itself at the expense of others,” they wrote.

From Barron's ● May 2, 2026

“There was never looking for credit, never looking to aggrandize himself,” Rendell told AP.

From Seattle Times ● Dec. 21, 2022

It feels odd to talk about, because I don’t want to aggrandize myself.

From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 20, 2019

All that emphasis on Powhatan as the only native leader of significance — that’s because he was the most familiar to the settlers, who tended to aggrandize their own experience, King said.

From Washington Post ● Nov. 21, 2018

And it produced, as war generally does, a class of unprincipled men who aggrandize themselves at the expense of their country.

From Ancient States and Empires by John Lord

With Iowa fully in the rearview mirror, expect to hear a variation on the phrase “Iowa picks corn, New Hampshire picks presidents,” a favorite local slogan that aggrandizes the state’s role in the nominating process.

From New York Times ● Jan. 17, 2024

Trinidad Gonzales, a history professor at South Texas College, said the pamphlet aggrandizes Manifest Destiny, the belief that American settlers had the God-given right to expand across North America.

From Salon ● Sep. 27, 2022

An army of female dancers aggrandizes her divadom, and, as one of her lead choreographers told the Times, “everything,” everything, “is choreographed to a T.”

From Slate ● Sep. 4, 2021

It seems like, among other things a miserable mindset, one that aggrandizes your ego but withers your soul.

From The Guardian ● Mar. 19, 2019

Their affection for her has infused into it an element which greatly aggrandizes and ennobles it—an element somewhat analogous to that sentiment of lofty devotion which a loyal subject feels for his queen.

From Gentle Measures in the Management and Training of the Young Or, the Principles on Which a Firm Parental Authority May Be Established and Maintained, Without Violence or Anger, and the Right Development of the Moral and Mental Capacities Be Promoted by Methods in Harmony with the Structure and the Characteristics of the Juvenile Mind by Jacob Abbott

This aggrandized, conceited movement makes it neither a priority nor a concern worthy of more than lip service.

From Washington Post ● Jul. 3, 2021

He did everything to feel aggrandized and powerful.

From Salon ● Jul. 13, 2020

And would the predictable reaction have been helpful, or only further aggrandized terrorism and divided society?

From US News ● Oct. 26, 2016

I think it’s fascinating that, as your role aggrandized there, you took on some of the natural roles for a talented IT executive but you also listed corporate strategy as one of your responsibilities.

From Forbes ● Jun. 16, 2014

The fathers whose sons had played merited a more aggrandized status in the fraternity of older men who queued along the passageway.

From "The Great Santini" by Pat Conroy

It seems aggrandizing and selfish to dwell on it when there are many people who lost everything in the course of that single day.

From Seattle Times ● Sep. 9, 2022

Fatherhood for me rests somewhere between selfless sacrifice and aggrandizing self-preservation.

From Scientific American ● Jun. 14, 2021

Jakab said Christmas employed a not-uncommon method of aggrandizing himself: “If you tell a lot of lies, people sort of think there must be something true in there.”

From Washington Post ● Jul. 20, 2020

And when aggrandizing accolades start flying — the Los Angeles Philharmonic website says many regard this as the great American opera — it’s time to shout, “Now hold on thar!”

From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 5, 2017

It was a sickeningly aggrandizing clump that was exacerbating itself within her stomach; and it made her doubt the efficacy of the plan.

From Tokyo to Tijuana: Gabriele Departing America by Steven (Steven David Justin) Sills