strengthen

Meaning

Verb

• To make strong or stronger; to add strength to; to increase the strength of; to fortify.
• To empower; to give moral strength to; to encourage; to enhearten.
• To augment; to improve; to intensify.
• To reinforce, to add to, to support
• To substantiate; to corroborate
• To grow strong or stronger.

Related

Opposite words

• weaken
• atrophy

Origin

• From rare Middle English strengthenen (14th c.), from earlier strengthen (12th c.), where -en is the infinitive ending. Probably the original form was reinterpreted as strength + -en around the time when the infinitive ending was being apocopated in late Middle English.