embolden

English

Etymology

Bold + em- -en, prebilabial intensifying verbal circumfix.

Pronunciation

• (RP) IPA: /ɛmˈbəʊldən/

  Rhymes: -əʊldən

Verb

embolden (third-person singular simple present emboldens, present participle emboldening, simple past and past participle emboldened)

1. (transitive) To render (someone) bolder or more courageous.
2. (transitive) To encourage, inspire, or motivate.
3. (transitive, typography) To format text in boldface.
   • 2004: Jason Whittaker, The Cyberspace Handbook, p216

     The tags <p></p> indicate paragraphs breaks, and we have included some basic text formatting: <em></em> for emphasis (typically italics), <u></u> for underline and <strong></strong> to embolden text.

Translations

To encourage, inspire, or motivate

• Bulgarian: насърчавам (bg) (nasǎrčavam), окуражавам (bg) (okuražavam)
• Dutch: moed geven (nl),verstouten (nl)

• French: encourager (fr),enhardir (fr)

Synonyms

• (typography): boldface

Quotations

• For usage examples of this term, see the citations page.

References