bastardize
Americanverb (used with object)
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to lower in condition or worth; debase.
hybrid works that neither preserve nor bastardize existing art forms.
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to declare or prove (someone) to be a bastard.
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Australian. to harass or humiliate as part of initiation into a college or regiment.
verb (used without object)
verb
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to debase; corrupt
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archaic to declare illegitimate
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of bastardize
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:
It always finds a way to reinvent itself — to become more daring, to fuse and bastardize.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 4, 2026
“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
"I wish we didn't bastardize the word 'leadership' in Washington," tweeted Rep. Sean Casten, D-Ill.
From Salon ● Apr. 21, 2022
“If we bastardize Congress, we’re also bastardizing our country,” Cayetano said in his video message.
From Washington Times ● Oct. 13, 2020
The law is so indulgent as not to bastardize the child, if born, though not begotten, in lawful wedlock.
From Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (2nd 100 Pages) by Noah Webster
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
“They’ve bastardized the concept of what NFTs were supposed to be,” said Aja Trier, an artist in Texas whose work has been copied and sold on OpenSea.
From New York Times ● Jun. 6, 2022
Yet, both self-care and kindness have been bastardized, transformed into ways to sell things that don’t materially help anyone except the seller’s bank account and the buyer’s own ego.
From Slate ● Dec. 10, 2020
"Really?" the lover said, although Yolanda had already filled him in on her family and her bastardized name—Yo, Joe, Yoyo.
From "How the García Girls Lost Their Accents" by Julia Alvarez
No one finished out 2025 talking about Disney bastardizing everyone’s favorite precocious blue alien, but “Materialists” was still driving conversations and reactions well through the end of the year.
From Salon ● Jan. 6, 2026
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
The album honors the Black American folk tradition without bastardizing or commodifying it.
From Slate ● Dec. 7, 2021
“If we bastardize Congress, we’re also bastardizing our country,” Cayetano said in his video message.
From Washington Times ● Oct. 13, 2020
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
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.
