From WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006) [wn]:
amplify
v 1: increase in size, volume or significance; "Her terror was
magnified in her mind" [syn: magnify, amplify]
2: to enlarge beyond bounds or the truth; "tended to romanticize
and exaggerate this `gracious Old South' imagery" [syn:
overstate, exaggerate, overdraw, hyperbolize,
hyperbolise, magnify, amplify] [ant: downplay,
minimise, minimize, understate]
3: exaggerate or make bigger; "The charges were inflated" [syn:
inflate, blow up, expand, amplify]
4: increase the volume of; "amplify sound"
From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:
Amplify \Am"pli*fy\, v. i.
1. To become larger. [Obs.]
[1913 Webster]
Strait was the way at first, withouten light,
But further in did further amplify. --Fairfax.
[1913 Webster]
2. To speak largely or copiously; to be diffuse in argument
or description; to dilate; to expatiate; -- often with on
or upon. --Watts.
[1913 Webster]
He must often enlarge and amplify upon the subject
he handles. --South.
[1913 Webster]
From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:
Amplify \Am"pli*fy\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Amplified; p. pr. &
vb. n. Amplifying.] [F. amplifier, L. amplificare. See
Ample, -fy.]
1. To render larger, more extended, or more intense, and the
like; -- used especially of telescopes, microscopes, etc.
[1913 Webster]
2. (Rhet.) To enlarge by addition or discussion; to treat
copiously by adding particulars, illustrations, etc.; to
expand; to make much of.
[1913 Webster]
Troilus and Cressida was written by a Lombard
author, but much amplified by our English
translator. --Dryden.
[1913 Webster]