edify
English
Alternative forms
- ædify (archaic)
Etymology
From Old French edifier (“to build, to edify”), from Latin aedificare (“build”).
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ˈɛdɪfaɪ/
Audio (UK) (file)
Verb
edify (third-person singular simple present edifies, present participle edifying, simple past and past participle edified)
- (now rare) To build, construct.
- 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto I”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, OCLC 960102938:
- That Castle was most goodly edifyde, / And plaste for pleasure nigh that forrest syde […]
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- (transitive) To instruct or improve morally or intellectually.
- January 23, 1783, Edward Gibbon, letter to Dr. Priestley
- It does not appear probable that our dispute [about miracles] would either edify or enlighten the public.
- 1813, The Connecticut Evangelical Magazine, Vol. VI, page 455
- That they ought to edify one another by maintaining and promoting the knowledge of truth.
- 1641, Francis Bacon, A Wise and Moderate Discourse, Concerning Church-Affaires
- frustrate the best endeavours in the edifying of the church
- January 23, 1783, Edward Gibbon, letter to Dr. Priestley
Related terms
- edification
- edificator
- edifice
- edifier
- edifying
Translations
To instruct or improve morally or intellectually
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Anagrams
- deify