adjectivize

American  

[aj-ik-ti-vahyz] / ˈædʒ ɪk tɪˌvaɪz /

especially British, adjectivise

verb (used with object)

adjectivized, adjectivizing

1. Grammar. to make into an adjective, as by adding a suffix.

   The noun mirth can be adjectivized by adding -ful or -less to form the adjectives mirthful and mirthless.

2. to apply adjectives to; describe.

   He tends to adjectivize himself as loyal and trustworthy, but that is far from accurate.

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verb (used without object)

adjectivized, adjectivizing

1. to overdescribe.

   She adjectivizes in agonizing detail, using three adjectives where even one would be superfluous.

Other Word Forms

• adjectivization
  noun

Etymology

Origin of adjectivize

adjectiv(e) + -ize

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

adjectivized

Several writers’ names have become adjectivized — Kafkaesque, Orwellian, Dickensian — but these are designators of mood, of situation, of civic decay.

From New York Times ● Feb. 1, 2016