lionise (lionize US)
verb

- give a lot of public attention and approval to (someone); treat as a celebrity

- to make someone famous, or to treat someone as if they were famous

- to treat as an object of great interest or importance

Dictionary dot Com / Cambridge Dictionary / Merriam-Webster

The lion is the king of beasts. To lionise someone is to regard them as important as a lion.

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ORIGIN

The meaning “to treat (someone) as a celebrity” is from 1809 (Scott). This preserves “lion” in the sense of “a person of note who is much sought-after” (from 1715), a sense said to have been extended from the lions formerly kept in the Tower of London from the late 16th century. These were animals of general curiosity that every visitor in town was taken to see.

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THE 5-MILE ROAR

A lion’s roar is so loud that it can be heard from more than five miles away. Reaching 114 decibels, the sound is louder than that of any other big cat — just one reason why the lion is known as the king of the jungle.

Lions are able to make such an imposing call thanks to their larynx: while most animals’ vocal cords are triangular, a lion’s are square and flat. This allows air to flow more easily, resulting in a loud roar that requires relatively little effort on the lion’s part.

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SYNONYMS
to give a lot of public attention and approval to someone:

acclaim, adulate, applaud, bestow honour on, canonise, carry a torch for, deify, ennoble, eulogise, extol the virtues of, give a big cigar to, give accolades to, glamourise, glorify, hats off to, heap praise on, hear it for, honour, immortalise, LIONISE, memorialise, pay tribute to, place on a pedestal, put the seal of approval on, raise one’s glass to, rhapsodize over, romanticise, throw bouquets at, treat like royalty, venerate

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Practice OWAD in a conversation today, say something like:

“Nowadays, there seem to be few politicians deserving to be LIONISED.”

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Paul Smith, IBAN: DE75 7316 0000 0002 5477 40