Emblazon

WORD OF THE DAY

emblazon / verb / im-BLAY-zun

Definition

1a: to inscribe or adorn with or as if with heraldic bearings or devices

1b: to inscribe (something, such as heraldic bearings) on a surface

2: celebrate, extol

Examples

Outside the stadium in the hours before the game, thousands of fans wearing shirts and hats emblazoned with the hometown team's logo gathered.

"Berkshire County knows David York as the man just daring enough to open a museum dedicated to dogs and emblazon the sides of a stretch limousine with a depiction of a dachshund." 

— Adam Shanks, The Berkshire Eagle (Massachusetts), 19 June 2018

Did You Know?

English speakers have been using the heraldic sense of emblazon since the late 16th century, and before that there was the verb blazon ("to describe heraldically") and the noun blazon ("a heraldic coat of arms"), which descend from Anglo-French blason. 

Emblazon still refers to adorning something with an emblem of heraldry, but it is now more often used for adorning or publicizing something in any conspicuous way, whether with eye-catching decoration or colorful words of praise.