Definition of "solemnize"

solemnize

verb
third-person singular simple present solemnizes, present participle solemnizing, simple past and past participle solemnized
1. (transitive, US) To make solemn, or official, through ceremony or legal act.
  Quotations
  Baptism to be administered in one place, and marriage solemnized in another.
  1594–1597, Richard Hooker, edited by J[ohn] S[penser], Of the Lawes of Ecclesiastical Politie, […], London: […] Will[iam] Stansby [for Matthew Lownes], published 1611, (please specify the page)
  Thir choice nobility and flower […] Met from all parts to ſolemnize this Feaſt.
  1671, John Milton, “Samson Agonistes, […]”, in Paradise Regain’d. A Poem. In IV Books. To which is Added, Samson Agonistes, London: […] J. M[acock] for John Starkey […], pages 95–96
  The great mysteries solemnised at Eleusis.
  1890, James George Frazer, The Golden Bough, volume 2, page 138
2. To make grave, serious, and reverential.
  Quotations
  Wordsworth was solemnized and elevated by this his first look on Yarrow.
  September 27, 1873, John Campbell Shairp, "Wordsworth's Three Yarrows", in Every Saturday
  Every Israelite […] arose, solemnized his face, looked towards Jerusalem […] and prayed.
  1880, Lew Wallace, Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ

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