beautify

Etymology

From Middle English beutifien, from Old French beaute (“beauty”), from Latin bellus (“beautiful, fine”), + -ify, from Latin facio (“make”).

verb

1. (transitive) To make beautiful; to increase the beauty of.
   1592, Robert Greene, Greene's Groats-Worth of Wit, London: William Wright, “Robertoes Tale” […] there is an vpstart Crow, beautified with our feathers, that with his Tygers hart wrapt in a Players hyde, supposes he is as well able to bombast out a blanke verse as the best of you:
   […] I’m so thankful for friendship. It beautifies life so much. 1909, Lucy Maud Montgomery, chapter 15, in Anne of Avonlea, Boston: L.C. Page, page 171
   ‘Boy, you take a big chance,’ Moses say. ‘Them pigeons there to beautify the park, not to eat. The people over here will kill you if you touch a fly.’ 1954, Sam Selvon, The Lonely Londoners, London: Longman, page 109
   1. (computing) Synonym of pretty-print
2. (intransitive, rare) To become beautiful.
   […] it must be a Prospect pleasing to God himself, to see his Creation for ever beautifying in his Eyes, and drawing nearer to him, by greater Degrees of Resemblance. 1719, Joseph Addison, “Upon the Immortality of the Soul”, in Maxims, Observations, and Reflections, London: E. Curll, page 88
3. (intransitive, rare) To make oneself beautiful.
   She’d felt silly when she first put cucumbers on her eyes (to diminish puffiness), or oatmeal on her face (to cleanse the pores and absorb excess oils), or egg yolks in her hair (to make it shine). Her use of groceries had even made my mother laugh, then wonder if she should start to beautify. 2002, Alice Sebold, chapter 13, in The Lovely Bones, London: Picador, page 156