solemnize

• solemnise (UK)

From Old French solemnisier, from Medieval Latin solemnizare, from Latin solemnis.

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solemnize (third-person singular simple present solemnizes, present participle solemnizing, simple past and past participle solemnized)

1. (transitive, US) To make solemn, or official, through ceremony or legal act.

   The couple chose to solemnize their relationship in a secular ceremony, instead of having a wedding.

   • 1594–1597, Richard Hooker, edited by J[ohn] S[penser], Of the Lawes of Ecclesiastical Politie, […], London: […] Will[iam] Stansby [for Matthew Lownes], published 1611, →OCLC, (please specify the page):

     Baptism to be administered in one place, and marriage solemnized in another.

   • 1671, John Milton, “Samson Agonistes, […].”, in Paradise Regain’d. A Poem. In IV Books. To which is Added, Samson Agonistes, London: […] J. M[acock] for John Starkey […], →OCLC, pages 95–96:

     Thir choice nobility and flower […] Met from all parts to ſolemnize this Feaſt.

   • 1890, James George Frazer, The Golden Bough, volume 2, page 138:

     The great mysteries solemnised at Eleusis.

2. To make grave, serious, and reverential.
   • September 27, 1873, John Campbell Shairp, "Wordsworth's Three Yarrows", in Every Saturday

     Wordsworth was solemnized and elevated by this his first look on Yarrow.

   • 1880, Lew Wallace, Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ:

     Every Israelite […] arose, solemnized his face, looked towards Jerusalem […] and prayed.

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