transfigure

To transfigure a human villain into a demonic one, ostensibly the ultimate moral indictment, in practice amounts to a kind of cinematic vindication.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 7, 2023

Like the calligraphy on display, these pictures transfigure Indian inspirations and Chinese interpretations into something that is uniquely Japanese.

From Washington Post ● Apr. 25, 2023

These phenomena transfigure copyrights, patents, and trademarks into subjects of everyday importance.

From Salon ● Jun. 4, 2022

If you aren’t aware that Susanna Kaysen published an influential memoir called Girl, Interrupted in 1999, the phrase is puzzling, since Loose Girl doesn’t so much promise to interrupt the truth as to transfigure it.

From Slate ● Nov. 30, 2017

It kept crackling and sparking at odd moments, and every time Ron tried to transfigure his beetle it engulfed him in thick gray smoke that smelled of rotten eggs.

From "Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets" by J. K. Rowling

What radiates from Eika’s gritty magical realism is ambient but potent: a grief so profound that it transfigures, a loneliness so abject that it fractures perception.

From Seattle Times ● Aug. 19, 2021

All great art is consoling because it transfigures our ordinary feelings into something bigger.

From The Guardian ● Nov. 11, 2016

It gets to the very essence of movie-going and transfigures the concept.

From The New Yorker ● Mar. 25, 2016

The show, which is having its world premiere here at Berkeley Repertory Theatre, boldly transfigures the whimsical charms of Jean-Pierre Jeunet's movie into sparkling musical comedy.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 23, 2015

It makes plain features lovely, and transfigures them with “the glory of the Lord.”

From My Daily Meditation for the Circling Year by John Henry Jowett

In imagining her disturbed perceptions, the novel shows the old dog’s circumscribed world transfigured by long forgotten yearnings and powerfully altered understandings.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 29, 2026

The martyred Monica has literally been transfigured into a saint.

From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 22, 2026

His inauguration was a ritual of devotion, an arena where the less powerful — which means practically everybody — was transfigured by his presence.

From Salon ● Jan. 31, 2025

The following year, he changed his own name to Akhenaten, meaning “the transfigured spirit of the solar orb,” and moved himself and his entire family to the new city.

From Textbooks ● Apr. 19, 2023

“This is a wonderful gift, Dad. Thanks a lot,” Ben said looking at his father, feeling somehow transfigured and invulnerable as he zipped up the jacket that was much too large for him.

From "The Great Santini" by Pat Conroy

The result was, if not a religious experience, then a spiritually transfiguring one.

From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 31, 2025

Still, the speed at which generative AI appears to be capable of transfiguring workplaces — seemingly overnight — is dizzying, especially relative to prior technological breakthroughs.

From Seattle Times ● May 12, 2023

Born in Antigua, Kincaid invents aesthetics which are wholly unique, transfiguring human form and surroundings, in particular, the Caribbean landscapes.

From The Guardian ● Feb. 2, 2019

Some of the words, coming in widely spaced, suspense-producing phrases, were “soon, I’ll pass by” and “now,” which made the song a hymn to ephemerality, describing the whole occasion while transfiguring it.

From New York Times ● Aug. 28, 2018

As artists will, they stole everything they could, transfiguring the images further.

From "1491" by Charles C. Mann