heighten

1 become more extreme; "The tension heightened" [syn: rise]

2 make more extreme; raise in quantity, degree, or intensity; "heightened interest"

3 increase; "This will enhance your enjoyment"; "heighten the tension" [syn: enhance, raise]

4 increase the height of; "The athletes kept jumping over the steadily heightened bars"

5 make (one's senses) more acute; "This drug will sharpen your vision" [syn: sharpen]

6 make more intense, stronger, or more marked; "The efforts were intensified", "Her rudeness intensified his dislike for her"; "Potsmokers claim it heightens their awareness"; "This event only deepened my convictions" [syn: intensify, compound, deepen]

English

Etymology

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -aɪtən

Verb

1. To make high; to raise higher; to elevate.
2. To carry forward; to advance; to increase; to augment; to aggravate; to intensify; to render more conspicuous; -- used of things, good or bad; as, to heighten beauty; to heighten a flavor or a tint.

Translations

• Dutch: verhogen

accelerate, add to, agent provocateur, aggrandize, aggravate, amplify, annoy, augment, beef up, better, blow up, boost, build, build up, buoy up, cast up, complicate, compound, concentrate, condense, consolidate, deepen, deteriorate, double, elevate, embitter, enhance, enlarge, erect, escalate, exacerbate, exaggerate, exasperate, expand, extend, heat up, heave, heft, heist, hike, hoick, hoist, hold up, hop up, hot up, improve, increase, intensify, irritate, jazz up, jerk up, key up, knock up, levitate, lift, lift up, lob, loft, magnify, make acute, make complex, make worse, mount, multiply, perk up, provoke, raise, raise up, ramify, rear, rear up, redouble, reinforce, rise, rouse, set up, sharpen, sky, soup up, sour, step up, stick up, strengthen, supplement, throw up, triple, up, upbuoy, upcast, upheave, uphoist, uphold, uplift, upraise, uprear, upsurge, upthrow, wax, whet, worsen