elevate

verb

1. (transitive)To raise (something) to a higher position.

   “The doctor told me elevating my legs would help reduce the swelling.”

   “The Grace or Blessynge of the table to be sayed of chyldren standynge before it, thyr handes eleuated and ioyned to gyder”

   “She had one eye declined for the loss of her husband, another elevated that the oracle was fulfilled: […]”

   “1750, Samuel Johnson, The Rambler, No. 25, 12 June, 1750, Volume 1, London: J. Payne and J. Bouquet, 1752, p. 216, We know that a few strokes of the axe will lop a cedar; but what arts of cultivation can elevate a shrub?”

   “Abdulla expressed his surprise by elevating his eyebrows.”

2. (transitive)To promote (someone) to a higher rank.

   “Hard Fate of Greatness, We so highly Elevated Are more expos’d to Censure than the little ones,”

   “Nothing can set the regal character in a more contemptible point of view, than the various crimes that have elevated men to the supreme dignity.”

   “[…] that’s the way things go when you elevate mediocre people to positions of authority.”

   “Much has also been made recently of the distorting effects exerted on the administration of Urban VIII by the interests of the Barberini nephews, especially of the two elevated to cardinal status.”

   “At that point, you have to elevate the account's rights, activate the feature, and then demote the account again.”

3. (transitive)To promote (someone) to a higher rank.

   “Did you forget that all programs that modify the registry need to be elevated?”

4. (transitive)To confer honor or nobility on (someone).

   “The traditional worldview elevates man as the pinnacle of creation.”

   “For loftie type of honour through the glaunce Of enuies dart, is downe in dust prostrate;”

5. (transitive)To make (something or someone) more worthy or of greater value.

   “A talented chef can elevate everyday ingredients into gourmet delights.”

   “[…] if you encourage a young Beginner, who knows but he may elevate his stile a little,”

   “He is the true artist, who copies nature; but, where he finds her mean, elevates her from his own ideas of beauty.”

   “You can’t think how it elevates him in my opinion, to know for certain that he’s really conscientious!”

6. (transitive)To direct (the mind, thoughts, etc.) toward more worthy things.

   “[…] the devout Christian improves the Blessings he receives of this inferiour World, to elevate his mind above it:”

   “On the whole I would regard serious art as a means to elevate the emotions and educate the spirit […]”

7. (transitive)To increase the intensity or degree of (something).

   “Some drugs have the side effect of elevating your blood sugar level.”

8. (dated, transitive)To increase the intensity or degree of (something).

   “[…] the Uncle had more than once elevated his Voice, so as to be heard down Stairs;”

   ““We’ll see to that,” Wolf Larsen answered, and elevated his voice in a call of “Cooky!””

9. (obsolete, transitive)To lift the spirits of (someone)

   “[…] Hope elevates, and joy Bright’ns his Crest,”

   “1759, Adam Smith, The Theory of Moral Sentiments, Edinburgh: A. Kincaid and J. Bell, Part 1, Section 2, Chapter 1, p. 20, It gives us the spleen […] to see another too happy or too much elevated, as we call it, with any little piece of good fortune.”

10. (colloquial, dated, humorous)To intoxicate in a slight degree; to make (someone) tipsy.

    “Steele entertained them till he was tipsy; when the same wine that stupified him, only served to elevate Addison, who took up the ball just as Steele dropt it, and kept it up for the rest of the evening.”

    “[Johnson,] from drinking only water, supposed every body who drank wine to be elevated”

    “[…] the elevated Cavaliers […] sent to Roger Raine of the Peveril Arms […] for two tubs of merry stingo”

11. (Latinism, obsolete)To attempt to make (something) seem less important, remarkable, etc.

    “1660, Jeremy Taylor, Ductor Dubitantium, London: Richard Royston, Volume 1, Chapter 4, Rule 2, p. 126, […] the Arabian Physicians […] endevour to elevate and lessen the thing [i.e. belief in the virgin birth of Jesus], by saying, It is not wholly beyond the force of nature, that a Virgin should conceive […]”

adj

1. (obsolete)Elevated, raised aloft.

   “1548, Edward Hall, The Union of the Two Noble and Illustre Families of Lancastre and Yorke, London: Richard Grafton, Henry VII, year 6, The sayde crosse was .iii. tymes deuoutly eleuate, and at euery exaltacion, ye Moores beyng within the cytie, roared, howled and cryed,”

   “Others apart sat on a Hill retir’d, In thoughts more elevate,”