strengthen
part of speech
verb (strengthen, strengthens, strengthened, strengthening)
meaning for a pupil
1) To strengthen something is to make it stronger. tree →
2) To strengthen is to become stronger. tree →
3) To strengthen a feeling, idea or friendship is to make it firmer or more certain. tree →
sense in the lessons
In PE and health it means building muscles: «exercises that strengthen your legs». In design and technology a bridge or a frame is strengthened with extra supports, like triangles. In everyday life friendships and teams are strengthened. In stories wind or storms «strengthen». In money talk a currency strengthens when it becomes worth more.
examples
- Swimming strengthens your arms and legs. tree →
- We strengthened the paper bridge with triangles. tree →
- The wind strengthened during the night. tree →
- Working together strengthened our friendship. tree →
- Milk helps to strengthen bones and teeth. tree →
- The builders strengthened the old wall with steel bars. tree →
- Her kind words strengthened my courage. tree →
- The new evidence strengthened the detective's idea. tree →
- You must be needing something to strengthen you after that turn.’ tree →
note
Spelling: strength + en (the «g» and «th» both stay). Opposite: «weaken». «Strengthen» can take an object («strengthen the wall») or not («the wind strengthened»). Noun: strength.
In the corpora
- Sport strengthens the tummy and back muscles that hold you up, which helps balance long days of sitting.
- And Jonathan Saul's son arose, and went to David into the wood, and strengthened his hand in God.
- Strengthen ye the weak hands, and make firm the tottering knees.
- Though I have trained and strengthened their arms, yet do they devise evil against Me.
- And I will strengthen them in the LORD; and they shall walk up and down in His name, saith the LORD.
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «strengthen» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.