All 11 Uses of

render

in

Moby Dick

And even when recognised at last, their immense magnitude renders it very hard really to believe that such bulky masses of overgrowth can possibly be instinct, in all parts, with the same sort of life that lives in a dog or a horse.†
Chpt 58-60 *

renders = makes or causes to become

The line originally used in the fishery was of the best hemp, slightly vapoured with tar, not impregnated with it, as in the case of ordinary ropes; for while tar, as ordinarily used, makes the hemp more pliable to the rope-maker, and also renders the rope itself more convenient to the sailor for common ship use; yet, not only would the ordinary quantity too much stiffen the whale-line for the close coiling to which it must be subjected; but as most seamen are beginning to learn, tar in general by no means adds to the rope's durability or strength, however much it may give it compactness and gloss.†
Chpt 58-60

And in the first place, you will be so good as to unsay that story about selling his head, which if true I take to be good evidence that this harpooneer is stark mad, and I've no idea of sleeping with a madman; and you, sir, YOU I mean, landlord, YOU, sir, by trying to induce me to do so knowingly, would thereby render yourself liable to a criminal prosecution.†
Chpt 1-3

The sailors, mostly poor devils, cringed, and some of them fawned before him; in obedience to his instructions, sometimes rendering him personal homage, as to a god.†
Chpt 70-72

I impute it, though, to their naturally unctuous natures, being rendered still more unctuous by the nature of their vocation, and especially by their pursuing their game in those frigid Polar Seas, on the very coasts of that Esquimaux country where the convivial natives pledge each other in bumpers of train oil.†
Chpt 100-102

Among many other fine qualities, my royal friend Tranquo, being gifted with a devout love for all matters of barbaric vertu, had brought together in Pupella whatever rare things the more ingenious of his people could invent; chiefly carved woods of wonderful devices, chiselled shells, inlaid spears, costly paddles, aromatic canoes; and all these distributed among whatever natural wonders, the wonder-freighted, tribute-rendering waves had cast upon his shores.†
Chpt 100-102

But though for some time past a number of these whales, not less than 13,000, have been annually slain on the nor'—west coast by the Americans alone; yet there are considerations which render even this circumstance of little or no account as an opposing argument in this matter.†
Chpt 103-105

He turns and turns him to it,—how slowly, but how steadfastly, his homage-rendering and invoking brow, with his last dying motions.†
Chpt 115-117 *

As in the hurricane that sweeps the plain, men fly the neighborhood of some lone, gigantic elm, whose very height and strength but render it so much the more unsafe, because so much the more a mark for thunderbolts; so at those last words of Ahab's many of the mariners did run from him in a terror of dismay.†
Chpt 118-120

But to render this acuteness at all successful in the end, the wind and the sea must be the whaleman's allies; for of what present avail to the becalmed or windbound mariner is the skill that assures him he is exactly ninety-three leagues and a quarter from his port?†
Chpt 133-135 *

Definitions:

(1) (render as in: rendered service or a verdict)
to give or supply something
(2) (render as in: rendered her unconscious)
to make or cause to become
(3) (render as in: rendered interpretation)
to portray or create something in a particular way; or to interpret, translate, or extract from
The exact meaning of this sense of render depends upon its context. For example:
- "Each artist will render a different interpretation when painting a portrait." -- create in a particular way
- "A Supreme Court judge may render his own interpretation of the Constitution." -- interpret in a particular way
- "The computer you are using, rendered this page from software instructions." -- created through interpretation
- "A graph is rendered from the underlying data." -- made
- "Fat can be rendered (extracted) by cooking meat slowly." -- extracted from
(4) (meaning too rare to warrant focus)
A comprehensive dictionary will have more specialized definitions of render.