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barbarize

[bahr-buh-rahyz]
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verb (used with object), bar·ba·rized, bar·ba·riz·ing.
  1. to make barbarous; brutalize; corrupt: foreign influences barbarizing the Latin language.
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verb (used without object), bar·ba·rized, bar·ba·riz·ing.
  1. to become barbarous; lapse into barbarism.
  2. to use barbarisms in speaking or writing.
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Also especially British, bar·ba·rise.

Origin of barbarize

1635–45; partly < Greek barbarízein, equivalent to bárbar(os) barbarian + -izein -ize; partly barbar(ous) + -ize
Related formsbar·ba·ri·za·tion, nounde·bar·ba·rize, verb (used with object), de·bar·ba·rized, de·bar·ba·riz·ing.un·bar·ba·rize, verb (used with object), un·bar·ba·rized, un·bar·ba·riz·ing.
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Related Words

brutalizeautomateautomatizebarbarizeimbruterobotize

Examples from the Web for barbarize

Historical Examples

  • If the most effectual method of degrading woman be to barbarize man, the certain means of dignifying her is to christianize him.

    Female Scripture Biographies, Vol. II

    Francis Augustus Cox

  • This might tend to barbarize, demoralize, and exasperate the whole mass and produce most deplorable consequences.

  • In this age, poverty tends to barbarize men; it shuts them out from the educational influences of our times.

British Dictionary definitions for barbarize

barbarize

barbarise

verb
  1. to make or become barbarous
  2. to use barbarisms in (language)
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Derived Formsbarbarization or barbarisation, noun
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012