bastardize

American  

[bas-ter-dahyz] / ˈbæs tərˌdaɪz /

especially British, bastardise

verb (used with object)

bastardized, bastardizing

1. to lower in condition or worth; debase.

   hybrid works that neither preserve nor bastardize existing art forms.

2. to declare or prove (someone) to be a bastard.

3. Australian. to harass or humiliate as part of initiation into a college or regiment.

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verb (used without object)

bastardized, bastardizing

1. to become debased.

bastardize British  

/ ˈbɑːstəˌdaɪz, ˈbæs- /

verb

1. to debase; corrupt

2. archaic to declare illegitimate

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Other Word Forms

• bastardization
  noun
• unbastardized
  adjective

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Etymology

Origin of bastardize

First recorded in 1580–90; bastard + -ize

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

bastardize bastardized bastardizing

It always finds a way to reinvent itself — to become more daring, to fuse and bastardize.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 4, 2026

Megan objected to the anecdote on social media, accusing Harris of trying to "reinvent history" and "bastardize his memory."

From Salon ● Oct. 12, 2024

“I feel like many people don’t realize that they bastardize ASL, and it harms more than it helps,” Bienvenu told Amanda.

From New York Times ● Jul. 27, 2022

“If we bastardize Congress, we’re also bastardizing our country,” Cayetano said in his video message.

From Washington Times ● Oct. 13, 2020

And were we to suppose his estate in his power to bequeath as he pleases; why should a man resolve, for the gratifying of his foolish humour only, to bastardize his race?

From Clarissa Harlowe; or the history of a young lady — Volume 4 by Samuel Richardson

I was just picturing them both hating how I bastardized their song.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 10, 2026

"Almost every relationship in my life would be bastardized and disingenuous because I couldn’t tell them what was going on. My son has never taken a walk outside — in five months," she said.

From Salon ● Mar. 31, 2025

That was always going to be a bastardized version of a baseball season, without fans in the seats and with manufactured crowd noise piped pumped into the stadium and broadcast feeds.

From Washington Post ● Mar. 6, 2022

“Big Ag has co-opted and bastardized every one of our messages,” he said.

From New York Times ● Sep. 7, 2021

Instead of Steinbeck and Shakespeare, her students read “watered-down news articles or biographies, bastardized novels, memos or brochures.”

From "Drama High" by Michael Sokolove

Duck à l’orange has a reputation as an archaic 1970s atrocity owing to American cooks bastardizing what should be a glistening garnish into a sickly-sweet goop.

From Salon ● Nov. 1, 2025

The show’s actors say they, too, have been struck by Lester’s sure hand in getting big laughs and by how she brings a modern sensibility to the role without bastardizing it.

From New York Times ● Aug. 10, 2022

“I think it is absolutely ludicrous that two countries so blessed with such a wonderful product should be going to court and bastardizing the name manuka,” he said.

From Seattle Times ● Nov. 2, 2019

“I think it’s a little bastardizing for artists to use the country industry for gain and not because they believe in what it should stand for,” Johnson said.

From Washington Times ● Jun. 10, 2019

The murder therefore was to be fixed on Richard the Third, who was to be supposed to have usurped the throne, by murdering, and not, as was really the case, by bastardizing his nephews.

From Historic Doubts on the Life and Reign of King Richard the Third by Horace Walpole

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