strengthen
Verb
- make strong or stronger
- "This exercise will strengthen your upper body"
- "strengthen the relations between the two countries"
- gain strength
- "His body strengthened"
- give a healthy elasticity to
- To make strong or stronger; to add strength to; to increase the strength of; to fortify.
- To empower; to give moral strength to; to encourage; to enhearten.
- To augment; to improve; to intensify.
- To reinforce, to add to, to support (someone or something)
- To substantiate; to corroborate (a belief, argument, etc.)
- To grow strong or stronger.
Examples
- strengthen a muscle
- strengthen a wall
- strengthen an army
- strengthen one's authority
- strengthen one's willpower
- strengthen the cause
Origin / Etymology
From rare Middle English strengthenen (14th c.), from earlier strengthen (12th c.), where -en is the infinitive ending. Probably the original form was reinterpreted as strength + -en around the time when the infinitive ending was being apocopated in late Middle English.
Synonyms
beef up, fortify, tone, tone up, anneal, brace, build up, confirm, enstrengthen, harden, indurate, intend, invigorate, munite, nerve, reinforce, roborate, steel, strength, strengthen, thicken
Antonyms
Scrabble Score: 14
strengthen: valid Scrabble (US) TWL Wordstrengthen: valid Scrabble Word in Merriam-Webster MW Dictionary
strengthen: valid Scrabble Word in International Collins CSW Dictionary