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

You simply had — to bastardize a phrase popularized by Timothy Leary — to turn in, tune out and drop out.

From Salon ● Dec. 8, 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

“My fear is that what was meant for good, in terms of pancreas donation, is being bastardized for self-preservation” by organ procurement organizations, he said in an interview.

From Washington Post ● Mar. 20, 2023

But this idea has been bastardized to the point of thinking that life knows that we humans are putzes and will clean up our mess.

From Salon ● Dec. 19, 2022

“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

"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

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

Patti Serrelli, the owner of the longtime Italian-beef purveyor Serrelli’s Finer Foods, had a harsher take on these adaptations: “They are kind of bastardizing the original recipe.”

From New York Times ● Dec. 27, 2021

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

From Washington Times ● Oct. 13, 2020

“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 should haue bin that I am, had the maidenlest Starre in the Firmament twinkled on my bastardizing.

From King Lear by William Shakespeare

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