1. increase the power, status, or wealth of: "an action intended to aggrandize the Frankish dynasty"
▪ enhance the reputation of (someone) beyond what is justified by the facts:"he hoped to aggrandize himself by dying a hero's death"
Word Originmid 17th century (in the general sense ‘increase, magnify’): from French agrandiss-, lengthened stem of agrandir, probably from Italian aggrandire, from Latin grandis ‘large’. The ending was changed by association with verbs ending in -ize.