lionize

It's nice for people to support you, don't get me wrong, but we can't lionize people being in prison.

From Salon ● Oct. 24, 2024

There’s also a whole bit in the courtroom of David swatting at a fly as his attorney attempts to lionize him.

From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 8, 2024

They like the stories that either demonize or lionize these people.

From Salon ● Mar. 25, 2023

Glew himself, importantly, is never the target of the joke: the movie has too much affection for its subject to ridicule his eccentricities, even gently, preferring to lionize him instead.

From New York Times ● Oct. 20, 2022

Friday, 3rd.—John had a letter to the pork-killing man, Mr. Armour, and he kindly sent two carriages for us, with an assistant, who was to lionize us about.

From The British Association's Visit to Montreal, 1884 : letters by Clara Rayleigh

Stubborn, single-minded and tireless, lionized and controversial, the Los Angeles water boss was 72.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 6, 2026

As Greenspan left office in 2005, Greenspan was lionized as the “maestro,” or the greatest central banker of the century.

From MarketWatch ● May 10, 2026

Lutheran pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer, murdered by the SS before he could be freed by Allied troops, is lionized in American churches, and his letters from prison became standard reading in Bible studies.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 7, 2025

The alleged villains in the trial are former Autonomy CEO Mike Lynch, who once was lionized as shining example of British ingenuity, and Stephen Chamberlain, Autonomy’s former vice president of finance.

From Seattle Times ● Mar. 17, 2024

And though it's clear to anyone with an ounce of logic that they are a pack of charlatans, they're lionized throughout the Empire not just as immortal, but as oracles and mind-readers.

From "An Ember in the Ashes" by Sabaa Tahir

But much more often, it’s simply a necessity — one that’s erased when lionizing the chill moms and the wild summers.

From Salon ● Jun. 24, 2026

Things get messy when we start lionizing anyone, perhaps especially young men who were just good at playing a child’s game.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 2, 2024

At the same time, the N.F.L. carefully tapped into the American fascination with organizational genius, lionizing the figure of the coach.

From New York Times ● Dec. 19, 2019

And as evangelicalism became a cultural force, it marked its difference from the wider culture by lionizing the family.

From Slate ● Oct. 17, 2019

All the preceding was written four days ago: cut short by the sudden entrance of Moore, whom I have been lionizing ever since. 

From Letters of Edward FitzGerald in two volumes, Vol. 1 by William Aldis Wright