magnify [LME] Early uses have strong biblical associations and included ‘show honour to (God)’ (Luke 1:46: ‘My soul doth magnify the Lord’: part of the Magnificat, a canticle used in Christian liturgy) and ‘make greater in size or importance’ (Job 20:6: ‘Though he be magnified up to the heaven’). ‘Make larger by means of a lens’ is a sense dating from the mid 17th century. It goes back to Latin magnus ‘great’ as does magnificent [LME] originally ‘serving to magnify’.