embolden

From bold +‎ em- -en.[1] Compare Middle English embold, inboldyssh.

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ɛmˈbəʊldən/, IPA^(key): /ɪmˈbəʊldən/

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  Rhymes: -əʊldən

embolden (third-person singular simple present emboldens, present participle emboldening, simple past and past participle emboldened)

1. (transitive) To render (someone) bolder or more courageous.
   • 1942 July-August, “The Northern & Eastern Railway”, in Railway Magazine, page 209:

     About this time, the success of the Liverpool & Manchester Railway had emboldened people to think that it was necessary merely to invest in any proposed new line to be assured of at least a 10 per cent. return on their money.

   • 2020, William H. Greene, Econometric Analysis, Pearson, page 334:

     The author lamented that the power of techniques involving instrumental variables and natural experiments to uncover causal relationships had emboldened economists to venture into areas far from their traditional expertise [...].

2. (transitive) To encourage, inspire, or motivate.
   • 1600 or 1601 (date written), I. M. [i.e., John Marston], Antonios Reuenge. The Second Part. […], London: […] [Richard Bradock] for Thomas Fisher, and are to be soulde [by Matthew Lownes] […], published 1602, →OCLC, Act V, scene iii, signatures I4, recto – I4, verso:

     Steel your thoughts, ſharp your reſolue, imboldẽ your spirit, graſp your ſvvords; alarum miſchief, & vvith an vndãted brovv, out ſcout the grim oppoſition of most menacing perill.

3. (transitive, typography) To format text in boldface.

   Synonym: boldface

   • 2004, Jason Whittaker, The Cyberspace Handbook, page 216:

     In HTML, the tags <p></p> indicate paragraphs breaks, and we have included some basic text formatting: <em></em> for emphasis (typically italics), <u></u> for underline and <strong></strong> to embolden text.

   • 2012, Craig Grannell, Victor Sumner, Dionysios Synodinos, The Essential Guide to HTML5 and CSS3 Web Design, page 337:

     Embolden the company name. Balancewise, the company name could do with standing out more.

• imbolden (archaic)

• “embolden”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.