ennoble

verb

en·​no·​ble i-ˈnō-bəl How to pronounce ennoble (audio)
e-ˈnō-
ennobled; ennobling i-ˈnō-b(ə-)liŋ How to pronounce ennoble (audio)
e-ˈnō-

transitive verb

1
: to make noble : elevate
seemed ennobled by suffering
2
: to raise to the rank of nobility
ennoblement noun

Examples of ennoble in a Sentence

a life ennobled by suffering Her skill and talent ennoble her profession. He was ennobled by the queen.
Recent Examples on the Web But the film, like its predecessors in the pantheon of great food movies, ennobles the preoccupation by revealing it as a proxy. ‘The Taste of Things’: Juliette Binoche is Mona Lisa in the kitchen Cooking, as Dodin and Eugenie demonstrate, is an act of love. Emily Heil, Washington Post, 14 Feb. 2024 The marvelous aural effect created on the stage at off-Broadway’s Public Theater by writer-director Conor McPherson and 16 other cast members is of hardship and disappointment ennobled by the healing power of song. Thomas Floyd, Washington Post, 11 Dec. 2023 In the particular case of van Gogh, no human being in the forty thousand years of humanity has ever been more inspired to ecstasy by experienced nature, and none has ever been a humbler companion in the struggles of ordinary people or inclined to ennoble them in art. Adam Gopnik, The New Yorker, 2 Nov. 2022 What Gadsby did was give the audience permission — moral permission — to turn their backs on what challenged them, and to ennoble a preference for comfort and kitsch. Jason Farago, New York Times, 1 June 2023 And the dish that takes you out of a bistro and into a fine-dining temple — blushing beef tenderloin topped with near-liquid roasted marrow — is ennobled with a moistener of black truffles, Madeira and a veal reduction that takes three days to make. Tom Sietsema, Washington Post, 21 Apr. 2023 Making and thinking with these leftovers from the production gave rise to a notion of making a building of them as a sympathetic way of using and ennobling scrap materials that would otherwise have been used as firewood. Kimberley Mok, Treehugger, 28 Mar. 2023 There’s no attempt to ennoble the character. Charles McNultytheater Critic, Los Angeles Times, 7 June 2022 Two Wheels Good is clearly the work of a writer who loves to ride his bicycle but declines to ennoble it with odes to environmental virtue or social justice. Curbed, 25 May 2022

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'ennoble.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

Etymology

Middle English ennobelen, from Middle French ennoblir, from Old French, from en- + noble noble

First Known Use

15th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Time Traveler
The first known use of ennoble was in the 15th century

Dictionary Entries Near ennoble

Cite this Entry

“Ennoble.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/ennoble. Accessed 18 Mar. 2024.

Kids Definition

ennoble

verb
en·​no·​ble in-ˈō-bəl How to pronounce ennoble (audio)
ennobled; ennobling -b(ə-)liŋ How to pronounce ennoble (audio)
1
: to make noble : elevate
seemed ennobled by his hardship
2
: to raise to the rank of nobility
ennoblement noun

More from Merriam-Webster on ennoble

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