Definition of lionize in English:

verb

• Give a lot of public attention and approval to (someone); treat as a celebrity.

  ‘modern sportsmen are lionized and feted’

  More example sentences

  • ‘Nehru eulogized him and lionized him as a great secularist and anti-feudal.’
  • ‘Nevertheless, he is a flamboyant showman, fond of electric blue suits, who once turned up on a motorbike to wild applause at the Cannes festival, where he is lionised.’
  • ‘He gets an evening devoted to lionizing him Thursday night by a group that considers itself progressive.’
  • ‘Yet when some bozo on a talk show confesses to an addiction or a perversion in front of millions of viewers, he's lionized as ‘courageous’ for speaking out.’
  • ‘I just never understand why he was lionized by some as ‘an incredibly talented yarn-spinner.’’
  • ‘When his early results seemed to find positive effects for school integration, he was lionized by the profession.’
  • ‘People will lionize you as the Voice of a Generation.’
  • ‘So we can dwell on his failings, or we can lionize him.’
  • ‘His audience is polarised, either denouncing him as a fraud or lionising him as some kind of spiritual leader.’
  • ‘Sometimes it comes to you, but at Leeds (where he was lionised by supporters) it got a bit silly towards the end.’
  • ‘He is lionised in Europe but expects his latest film to open in 10 times as many cinemas in France than in Britain.’
  • ‘He has magic feet but those who lament rather than lionise him say that he is a hostage to tragic attitude.’
  • ‘But he succeeds notably in sustaining enthusiasm across 751 pages, taking a wise and soulful man who was inept at courting popular opinion and lionizing him.’
  • ‘The first show lionized him as part of photography's distinguished history; critics consistently viewed him as the most modern of the old guard.’
  • ‘In 1778, after an absence of 28 years, he made a triumphal return to Paris, where he was lionized for four months in a way few writers can ever have experienced.’
  • ‘He was lionized by aristocratic and literary London, survived a hectic love affair with Lady Caroline Lamb, and became the constant companion of Augusta.’
  • ‘During a visit to Britain in 1886 he was lionized with genuine enthusiasm and affection.’
  • ‘The chilling thing is that he and those who lionize him seem to want his predictions to come true.’
  • ‘But she is lionised by her mother as a juvenile intellectual.’
  • ‘He was lionised in fashionable and clever society.’

  Synonyms

  celebrate, fete, glorify, honour, bestow honour on, exalt, acclaim, admire, commend, sing the praises of, sound the praises of, praise, extol, applaud, hail, make a fuss of, make a fuss over, make much of, cry up, venerate, eulogize, sing paeans to, reverence, pay homage to, pay tribute to, put on a pedestal, hero-worship, worship, idolize, adulate

  View synonyms