English

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Etymology

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From enlarge +‎ -ment.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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enlargement (countable and uncountable, plural enlargements)

  1. An act or instance of making something larger.
    Rick was ashamed about the size of his penis, so he had a penis enlargement.
  2. (figuratively) A making more obvious or serious; exacerbation.
    • 1874, Thomas Hardy, Far From the Madding Crowd, 2005 Barnes & Noble Classics publication of 1912 Wessex edition, p.337
      Bathsheba underwent the enlargement of her husband's absence from hours to days with a slight feeling of surprise, and a slight feeling of relief; yet neither sensation rose at any time far above the level commonly designated as indifference.
  3. An image, particularly a photograph, that has been enlarged.
  4. (obsolete) Freedom from confinement; liberty.
    • c. 1595–1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Loues Labour’s Lost”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies [] (First Folio), London: [] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene i]:
      Go, tenderness of years; take this key, give enlargement to the swain, bring him festinately hither.
  5. Diffuseness of speech or writing; a speaking at length.
    • 1897, Peter Joseph Cooke, Forensic Eloquence, page 40:
      Briefly, a discourse generally consists in some prefatory remarks which pave the way as it were for the enlargement upon which a speaker usually enters when he speaks to any purpose.

Derived terms

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Translations

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