embolden

Etymology

From bold + em- -en. Compare Middle English embold, inboldyssh.

verb

1. (transitive) To render (someone) bolder or more courageous.
   About this time, the success of the Liverpool & Manchester Railway had emboldened people to think that it was necessary merely to invest in any proposed new line to be assured of at least a 10 per cent. return on their money. 1942 July-August, “The Northern & Eastern Railway”, in Railway Magazine, page 209
   The author lamented that the power of techniques involving instrumental variables and natural experiments to uncover causal relationships had emboldened economists to venture into areas far from their traditional expertise …. 2020, William H. Greene, Econometric Analysis, Pearson, page 334
2. (transitive) To encourage, inspire, or motivate.
3. (transitive, typography) To format text in boldface.
   In HTML, the tags indicate paragraphs breaks, and we have included some basic text formatting: for emphasis (typically italics), for underline and to embolden text. 2004, Jason Whittaker, The Cyberspace Handbook, page 216
   Embolden the company name. Balancewise, the company name could do with standing out more. 2012, Craig Grannell, Victor Sumner, Dionysios Synodinos, The Essential Guide to HTML5 and CSS3 Web Design, page 337