edify

To build, construct.

Verb

  1. To build, construct.
    • That Castle was most goodly edifyde, / And plaste for pleasure nigh that forrest syde […] - 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto I”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:
  2. To instruct or improve morally or intellectually.
    • frustrate the best endeavours in the edifying of the church - 1641, Francis Bacon, A Wise and Moderate Discourse, Concerning Church-Affaires:
    • January 23, 1783, Edward Gibbon, letter to Dr. Priestley It does not appear probable that our dispute [about miracles] would either edify or enlighten the public.
    • That they ought to edify one another by maintaining and promoting the knowledge of truth. - 1813, The Connecticut Evangelical Magazine, Vol. VI, page 455:

Origin

From Old French edifier (“to build, to edify”), from Latin aedificare (“build”).

Forms

edifies edifying edified ædify

Related

edification edificator edifice edifier edifying

Derived

disedify reedify