enhance

• inhance, enhaunce, inhaunce (all obsolete)

From Middle English enhauncen, anhaunsen, from Anglo-Norman anhauncer, from Old French enhaucier (“to make greater, make higher, make louder; to fatten, foster, raise in esteem”), from Vulgar Latin *inaltiāre (“exalt”, literally “to heighten”), from Latin inaltāre (“to make high, raise up”), from Latin in + altus (“high”), influenced by Old French haut (“high”), of partial Frankish origin.

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ɪnˈhɑːns/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ɪnˈhæns/, /ɛnˈhæns/

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• Rhymes: -ɑːns, -æns

enhance (third-person singular simple present enhances, present participle enhancing, simple past and past participle enhanced)

1. (obsolete) To lift, raise up.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book I, Canto I”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, OCLC 960102938:

     nought aghast, his mightie hand enhaunst: / The stroke down from her head vnto her shoulder glaunst.

2. To augment or make something greater.
   • 1831, Robert Southey, Sir Thomas More: Or Colloquies on the Progress and Prospects of Society, page 214:

     They had no character to preserve, except for courage; and perhaps the reputation of ferocity enhanced the value of their services, in making them feared as well as hated by the people.

   • 2000, Mordecai Roshwald, Liberty: Its Meaning and Scope, page 155:

     A hereditary monarch relies on pomp and ceremony, which enhance the respect for the institution

3. To improve something by adding features.
   • 1986, Maggie Righetti, Knitting in Plain English, page 192:

     A pom-pom to top off a stocking cap, a fringe to feather the edge of a shawl, tassels to define the points of an afghan, these are just a few of the delightful little goodies that enhance handknit things.

4. (intransitive) To be raised up; to grow larger.

   A debt enhances rapidly by compound interest.

5. (radiology) To take up contrast agent (for an organ, tissue, or lesion).

• heighten
• See also Thesaurus:improve

enhance

1. Alternative form of enhauncen