maximize

When you maximize something, you make it as big as you possibly can, the way you would maximize your chances of winning the lottery if you spent all of your money on lottery tickets.

It seems like you come across the word maximize most often in dry, boring contexts like businesses trying to “maximize” their profits or a politician wanting to “maximize” her government’s potential. Regular people probably use it more often when they’re talking about their computers, to mean “display a window at its largest size.” When you maximize a window on your computer, you can actually see what the word means!