elevate

Etymology

From Latin ēlevātus, past participle of ēlevāre (“to raise, lift up”), from ē- (“out”) + levāre (“to make light, to lift”), from levis (“light”); see levity and lever.

verb

1. (transitive) To raise (something) to a higher position.
   The doctor told me elevating my legs would help reduce the swelling.
   The Grace or Blessynge of the table to be sayed of chyldren standynge before it, thyr handes eleuated and ioyned to gyder 1534, William Marshall, George Joye, A Prymer in Englyshe, London: William Marshall
   1750, Samuel Johnson, The Rambler, No. 25, 12 June, 1750, Volume 1, London: J. Payne and J. Bouquet, 1752, p. 216, We know that a few strokes of the axe will lop a cedar; but what arts of cultivation can elevate a shrub?
2. (transitive) To promote (someone) to a higher rank.
   Hard Fate of Greatness, We so highly Elevated Are more expos’d to Censure than the little ones, 1682, Aphra Behn, “The Roundheads or, The Good Old Cause”, in et al., London: D. Brown, act I, scene 1, page 6
   […] that’s the way things go when you elevate mediocre people to positions of authority. 1961, Joseph Heller, chapter 29, in Catch-22, New York: Dell, page 334
   Much has also been made recently of the distorting effects exerted on the administration of Urban VIII by the interests of the Barberini nephews, especially of the two elevated to cardinal status. 2014, A. D. Wright, The Early Modern Papacy
   At that point, you have to elevate the account's rights, activate the feature, and then demote the account again. 2014, Guy W. Lecky-Thompson, Inside SharePoint 2007 Administration, page 55
3. (transitive) To confer honor or nobility on (someone).
   The traditional worldview elevates man as the pinnacle of creation.
   For loftie type of honour through the glaunce Of enuies dart, is downe in dust prostrate; 1591, Edmund Spenser, “Virgils Gnat” in Complaints, London: William Ponsonbie, That none, whom fortune freely doth aduaunce, Himselfe therefore to heauen should eleuate
4. (transitive) To make (something or someone) more worthy or of greater value.
   A talented chef can elevate everyday ingredients into gourmet delights.
   […] if you encourage a young Beginner, who knows but he may elevate his stile a little, 1682, John Dryden, “Epistle to the Whigs”, in The Medal, Edinburgh
   He is the true artist, who copies nature; but, where he finds her mean, elevates her from his own ideas of beauty. 1768, William Gilpin, chapter 1, in An Essay upon Prints, London: J. Robson, page 33
5. (transitive) To direct (the mind, thoughts, etc.) toward more worthy things.
   […] the devout Christian improves the Blessings he receives of this inferiour World, to elevate his mind above it: 1665, Robert Boyle, Occasional Reflections upon Several Subjects, London: Henry Herringman, Section 4, Chapter 4, pp. 73-74
   On the whole I would regard serious art as a means to elevate the emotions and educate the spirit […] 1999, Ahdaf Soueif, chapter 18, in The Map of Love, New York: Anchor Books, published 2000
6. (transitive) To increase the intensity or degree of (something).
   Some drugs have the side effect of elevating your blood sugar level.
   1. (dated) To increase the loudness of (a sound, especially one's voice).
7. (transitive, obsolete) To lift the spirits of (someone)
   1759, Adam Smith, The Theory of Moral Sentiments, Edinburgh: A. Kincaid and J. Bell, Part 1, Section 2, Chapter 1, p. 20, It gives us the spleen […] to see another too happy or too much elevated, as we call it, with any little piece of good fortune.
8. (dated, colloquial, humorous) To intoxicate in a slight degree; to make (someone) tipsy.
   Steele entertained them till he was tipsy; when the same wine that stupified him, only served to elevate Addison, who took up the ball just as Steele dropt it, and kept it up for the rest of the evening. 23 October 1755, George Colman, Bonnell Thornton, The Connoisseur, volume 2, number 91, London: R. Baldwin, published 1756, page 557
9. (obsolete, Latinism) To attempt to make (something) seem less important, remarkable, etc.
   1660, Jeremy Taylor, Ductor Dubitantium, London: Richard Royston, Volume 1, Chapter 4, Rule 2, p. 126, […] the Arabian Physicians […] endevour to elevate and lessen the thing [i.e. belief in the virgin birth of Jesus], by saying, It is not wholly beyond the force of nature, that a Virgin should conceive […]

adj

1. (obsolete) Elevated; raised aloft.
   1548, Edward Hall, The Union of the Two Noble and Illustre Families of Lancastre and Yorke, London: Richard Grafton, Henry VII, year 6, The sayde crosse was .iii. tymes deuoutly eleuate, and at euery exaltacion, ye Moores beyng within the cytie, roared, howled and cryed,