extol as

extol (someone or something) as (something)

To highlight and praise the positive aspects of someone or something by depicting it or them as having a certain quality or fulfilling a certain role. After he made that sizable donation, we extolled him as the savior of the program.
See also: extol
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

extol someone or something as something

to praise someone or something as something. We extolled her as a heroine. The salesman extolled the medicine as a cure-all.
See also: extol
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs.
See also:
  • extol
  • extol (someone or something) as (something)
  • extoll
  • establish
  • establish (oneself, someone, or something) as (something)
  • establish as
  • treat (someone or something) like (someone or something else)
  • treat like
  • certain
  • be certain of (something)
References in classic literature
It is laudable, what they think hard; what is indispensable and hard they call good; and what relieveth in the direst distress, the unique and hardest of all,--they extol as holy.
Thus Spake Zarathustra
There was such fascination in her pluck, nimbleness, the continual exhibition of unfailing seaworthiness, in the semblance of courage and endurance, that I could not give up the delight of watching her run through the three unforgettable days of that gale which my mate also delighted to extol as "a famous shove."
Mirror of the Sea