barbarize
Americanverb (used with object)
verb (used without object)
-
to become barbarous; lapse into barbarism.
-
to use barbarisms in speaking or writing.
verb
-
to make or become barbarous
-
to use barbarisms in (language)
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of barbarize
1635–45; partly < Greek barbarízein, equivalent to bárbar ( os ) barbarian + -izein -ize; partly barbar(ous) + -ize
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
To his French and Arab friends, who look upon Americans as Roman-style imperialists come to organize and barbarize their cultivated Greek-style world, Childress is "the nice American," a surprisingly sensitive soul.
From Time Magazine Archive
The legions are barbarized and they barbarize the Emperor.
From Medieval People by Power, Eileen Edna
Manners are what vex or soothe, exalt or debase, barbarize or refine us by a constant, steady, uniform, invincible operation like that of the air we breathe.
From Pushing to the Front by Marden, Orison Swett
The nobles were directed to converse in English, French, Italian, or their native tongue; Pombal declaring, that the custom of speaking Latin was only "to teach them to barbarize."
From Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine — Volume 56, No. 345, July, 1844 by Various
Manners are what vex or soothe, corrupt or purify, exalt or debase, barbarize or refine, by a constant, steady, uniform, insensible operation, like that of the air we breathe in.
From Many Thoughts of Many Minds A Treasury of Quotations from the Literature of Every Land and Every Age by Klopsch, Louis
Whither went the nine old Muses, daughters of Jupiter and the Goddess of Memory, after their seats on Helicon, Parnassus, and Olympus were barbarized?
From The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 06, No. 34, August, 1860 by Various
But no such good fortune was in store for Europe, which was now only at the beginning of the turmoil from which it was to emerge almost completely barbarized.
From An Introduction to the History of Western Europe by Robinson, James Harvey
Not knowing what to do with the flower border, we barbarized instead of cultivating it.
From Julia Ward Howe 1819-1910 by Elliott, Maud Howe
Is the world to be barbarized again or not?
From The World Decision by Herrick, Robert
The legions are barbarized and they barbarize the Emperor.
From Medieval People by Power, Eileen Edna
The ill habit … of wretched barbarizing against the Latin and Greek idiom, with their untutored Anglicisms.
From Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (2nd 100 Pages) by Webster, Noah
The Roman empire was barbarizing rapidly from the time of Trajan.
From Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (2nd 100 Pages) by Webster, Noah
French is provincial Latin as spoken by the Franks, a Teutonic race; and, to a smaller extent, the same barbarizing has affected all other Roman dialects.
From Lectures on The Science of Language by Müller, Max
Nor is it merely probable that such a barbarizing process, such an adopting and sanctioning of a vulgarism, might take place, but among phonographers it already has taken place.
From English Past and Present by Palmer, Abram Smythe
He objected to it as anti-social; he objected to it as making commerce the means of barbarizing instead of enlightening nations.
From The Great Speeches and Orations of Daniel Webster With an Essay on Daniel Webster as a Master of English Style by Webster, Daniel
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
