catechize
Americanverb (used with object)
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to instruct orally by means of questions and answers, especially in Christian doctrine.
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to question with reference to belief.
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to question closely.
- Synonyms:
- probe, examine, quiz, interrogate
verb
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to teach or examine by means of questions and answers
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to give oral instruction in Christianity, esp by using a catechism
-
to put questions to (someone)
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of catechize
1375–1425; late Middle English < Late Latin catēchizāre < Greek katēchízein to make (someone) learn by teaching orally, equivalent to katēch ( eîn ) to teach orally ( see catechist) + -izein -ize
Vocabulary lists containing catechize
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:
Then the Cardinal began to catechize the priest who had once been an assistant to his secretariat.
From Time Magazine Archive
But the dean kept Michal back in order to catechize her, and began to put various questions to her, which she answered so promptly and so correctly that he was perfectly delighted.
From Pretty Michal by Mór Jókai
And thus it belongs to the ministers to catechize.
From Summa Theologica, Part III (Tertia Pars) From the Complete American Edition by Saint Thomas Aquinas
I must catechize you for it, madonna: Good my mouse of virtue, answer me.
From Twelfth Night or, What You Will by J P Kemble
Neither of them ever made a public profession of religion, but they were careful to observe external ordinances, catechize their children, and give religious instruction.
From War Inconsistent with the Religion of Jesus Christ by David Low Dodge
I was, in my view, blessed to be raised in the church and catechized as a little kid.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 7, 2026
“This exchange had catechized Julian on several points,” Ava thinks.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 3, 2020
While they ate, they catechized her on her opinions, and were delighted to find that she believed in God and expected to vote Conservative when she was twenty-one.
From The New Yorker ● Jul. 2, 2012
So early in the morning was it and so unprepared were newsmen for such a development that Governor Young, unrecognized, entered and left the White House without being caught and catechized.
From Time Magazine Archive
He had been catechized so much that day that his taciturnity was not to be wondered at.
From Black Forest Village Stories by Berthold Auerbach
A Clergyman engaged in catechizing a village school, asked a youngster, “what his godfathers and godmothers did for him?”
From Slate ● Apr. 29, 2018
This morning the father, the Rev. Henry Erskine, has been catechizing a group of children at the kirk.
From A Handful of Stars Texts That Have Moved Great Minds by Frank Boreham
It has also been resolved that part of the Sabbath afternoon be devoted to catechizing, as is now common in many Protestant churches in Germany and Switzerland.
From John Ronge: The Holy Coat Of Treves New German-Catholic Chruch by Anonymous
One insists upon catechizing him as to dates, another as to his veterinary knowledge--there is only wanting that I should attack him about culinary lore.
From The Danes Sketched by Themselves. Vol. I (of 3) A Series of Popular Stories by the Best Danish Authors by Various
I flared with a childish resentment at this catechizing of his.
From Masterpieces of Mystery, Vol. 1 (of 4) Ghost Stories by Joseph Lewis French
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.
