bowdlerizing

1. Amending a book by removing passages and words deemed obscene or objectionable (see obscenity). The name comes from Thomas Bowdler's 1818 edition of the plays of William Shakespeare, which was amended so that it could “be read aloud in a family.”

Example Sentences

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

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Her 13th book of adult fiction is called “A Children’s Bible” — a clever self-undercutting that suggests an all-encompassing theory of everything while also promising simplicity, reduced scale, even a certain bowdlerizing.

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In that way of overprotective parents, I used to skip this passage, before my kids were old enough to catch me bowdlerizing.

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I also don’t think he was consciously bowdlerizing the song to make it more ‘‘appropriate’’ for me.

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All the candidates have taken what was once a very specific ideology and extracted their favorite parts, selectively interpreting the vision and generally bowdlerizing it.

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