bowdlerize

American  

[bohd-luh-rahyz, boud-] / ˈboʊd ləˌraɪz, ˈbaʊd- /

especially British, bowdlerise

verb (used with object)

bowdlerized, bowdlerizing

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

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bowdlerize British  

/ ˈbaʊdləˌraɪz /

verb

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

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Other Word Forms

• bowdlerism noun
• bowdlerization noun
• bowdlerizer noun
• unbowdlerized adjective

Etymology

Origin of bowdlerize

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

Example Sentences

But, as Samartzis admitted with a grin, bowdlerizing wind from the breeziest place in the world wasn’t very authentic.

From New York Times

Bowdler’s work fell out of print, his name forgotten except as a synonym for all the purse-lipped virtue vandals who would “bowdlerize” great books in the name of protecting children.

From Washington Post

In most of these entertainments, though, the animals primarily come across as people in cutesy, bowdlerized animal drag.

From New York Times

Yet Brice, knowing all that, still adored him, which makes a far more interesting tale than the bowdlerized one the show offers, of a duped woman finally and regretfully seeing the light.

From New York Times

Folk singers have long bowdlerized troubling words in standards, dropping racial slurs or rewriting violent sagas to modernize their musical inheritance.

From New York Times