Definition of "ennoble" [en•no•ble]

• To make noble: "that chastity of honor . . . which ennobled whatever it touched, and under which vice itself lost half its evil” ( Edmund Burke). (verb-transitive)
• To confer nobility upon: ennoble a prime minister for distinguished service. (verb-transitive)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "By thus declaring himself the follower of so fine a craftsman, Dante suggests, he hopes to "ennoble" his own undertaking."
• "Cilea's alternately swooning, scintillating and thundering score does much to ennoble the overwrought claptrap of the opera's libretto."
• "This Parisian early prototype, however, lacked the spicy seasonings that ennoble the classic cocktail we know today."