lionize
verb
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Across time and across cultures—as evidenced from Chauvet-Pont d’Arc’s paintings to The Lion King—lions have captured people’s imaginations. Though the big cats themselves are fascinatingly complex, it’s perhaps no surprise that humans have long projected qualities of bravery and regality upon the proverbial “king of the beasts.” It is precisely those and similar admirable qualities that led, in the 18th century, to lion being used for a person who is similarly well-regarded, especially after a long and distinguished career in a particular field, as in “lion of the Senate,” or “literary lion.” This sense of lion imbues the verb lionize, which first appeared in English in the early 19th century to apply to acts of treating someone as, perhaps, deserving of roaring applause.
Examples of lionize in a Sentence
IEEE Spectrum, 18 June 2024
Trump has crossed a line from defending the Jan. 6 detainees to lionizing them.
—Doyle McManus, Los Angeles Times, 17 June 2024
Here was the franchise, once Connecticut’s only major-league professional sports team, after having decided to pack its bags and leave nearly 27 years ago, now suddenly lionizing Hartford and its hockey glory days.
—Kels Dayton, Hartford Courant, 11 Feb. 2024
Lawler’s photographs can seem to swipe across, distort, or blur canonic artworks, questioning the systems and institutions that have lionized and valued them.
—Devorah Lauter, ARTnews.com, 3 Sep. 2019
See all Example Sentences for lionize 
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'lionize.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Dictionary Entries Near lionize
Cite this Entry
“Lionize.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/lionize. Accessed 2 Jul. 2024.
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