bowdlerize

[bohd-luh-rahyz, boud-]

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR bowdlerize ON THESAURUS.COM

verb (used with object), bowd·ler·ized, bowd·ler·iz·ing.

to expurgate (a written work) by removing or modifying passages considered vulgar or objectionable.

RELATED WORDS

expurgate, edit, redact

Also especially British, bowd·ler·ise.

Origin of bowdlerize

1830–40; after Thomas Bowdler (1754–1825), English editor of an expurgated edition of Shakespeare

Related formsbowd·ler·ism, nounbowd·ler·i·za·tion, nounbowd·ler·iz·er, nounun·bowd·ler·ized, adjective

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for bowdlerize

Historical Examples of bowdlerize

I have no wish to bowdlerize Sir Richard Steele, his ways and words.
Essays
Alice Meynell
She should not be allowed to disguise and bowdlerize it to suit the unwelcome tastes she had acquired at school.
Joanna Godden
Sheila Kaye-Smith
This is called "expurgating" the book; but people who disapprove often call it to bowdlerize.
Stories That Words Tell Us
Elizabeth O'Neill

British Dictionary definitions for bowdlerize

bowdlerize

bowdlerise

verb

(tr) to remove passages or words regarded as indecent from (a play, novel, etc); expurgate

Derived Formsbowdlerization or bowdlerisation, nounbowdlerizer or bowdleriser, nounbowdlerism, noun

Word Origin for bowdlerize

C19: after Thomas Bowdler (1754–1825), English editor who published an expurgated edition of Shakespeare

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

Word Origin and History for bowdlerize

1836, from Thomas Bowdler (1754-1825), English editor who in 1818 published a notorious expurgated Shakespeare, in which, according to his frontispiece, "nothing is added to the original text; but those words and expressions omitted which cannot with propriety be read aloud in a family." Related: Bowdlerized; bowdlerizing.