censor
[sen-ser]
- an official who examines books, plays, news reports, motion pictures, radio and television programs, letters, cablegrams, etc., for the purpose of suppressing parts deemed objectionable on moral, political, military, or other grounds.
- any person who supervises the manners or morality of others.
- an adverse critic; faultfinder.
- (in the ancient Roman republic) either of two officials who kept the register or census of the citizens, awarded public contracts, and supervised manners and morals.
- (in early Freudian dream theory) the force that represses ideas, impulses, and feelings, and prevents them from entering consciousness in their original, undisguised forms.
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- to examine and act upon as a censor.
- to delete (a word or passage of text) in one's capacity as a censor.
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Origin of censor
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Related Words
blacklistexciseeditsuppresswithholdrestrictsanitizeabridgedeletecontrolexaminecutreviewrepresssterilizerestrainexpurgateinspectlaundercorkExamples from the Web for censoring
Contemporary Examples
Sadly, it appears the American press often doesn't need any outside help when it comes to censoring themselves.
Sweden explores new frontiers in our misguided, foolish, pointless obsession with rating and censoring entertainment.
Hardly an apologist for Vienna, Byron still found these tracts too extreme and in need of censoring.
Poet and Rake, Lord Byron Was Also an Interventionist With Brains and SavvyMichael Weiss
February 16, 2014
“They were censoring me because of my speech,” he told The Daily Beast.
If that's the case, then the Barnes Noble and Borders debacle isn't just a question of censoring the transgender body.
Historical Examples
If the State censors any letters it cannot logically stop short of censoring all.
MeccaniaOwen Gregory
But the ever-helpful Register more than made up for their censoring.
MountainClement Wood
The censoring had been done at Buda-Pesth in all probability.
Under Fire For ServiaColonel James Fiske
Dave Moroka, who'd been censoring press releases, shook his head.
Border, Breed Nor BirthDallas McCord Reynolds
If it is accepted as proper to censor films there can be little objection to censoring comics.
Report of the Juvenile Delinquency CommitteeRonald Macmillan Algie
censor
- a person authorized to examine publications, theatrical presentations, films, letters, etc, in order to suppress in whole or part those considered obscene, politically unacceptable, etc
- any person who controls or suppresses the behaviour of others, usually on moral grounds
- (in republican Rome) either of two senior magistrates elected to keep the list of citizens up to date, control aspects of public finance, and supervise public morals
- psychoanal the postulated factor responsible for regulating the translation of ideas and desires from the unconscious to the conscious mindSee also superego
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- to ban or cut portions of (a publication, film, letter, etc)
- to act as a censor of (behaviour, etc)
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Word Origin
C16: from Latin, from cēnsēre to consider, assess
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
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Word Origin and History for censoring
censor
v.
1833 of media, from censor (n.). Related: Censored; censoring.
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censor
n.
1530s, "Roman magistrate who took censuses and oversaw public morals," from Middle French censor and directly from Latin censor, from censere "to appraise, value, judge," from PIE root *kens- "speak solemnly, announce" (cf. Sanskrit śamsati "recites, praises," śasa "song of praise").
There were two of them at a time in classical times, usually patricians, and they also had charge of public finances and public works. Transferred sense of "officious judge of morals and conduct" in English is from 1590s. Roman censor also had a transferred sense of "a severe judge; a rigid moralist; a censurer." Of books, plays (later films, etc.), 1640s. By the early decades of the 19c. the meaning of the English word had shaded into "state agent charged with suppression of speech or published matter deemed politically subversive." Related: Censorial.
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
censor
(sĕn′sər)- The hypothetical agent in the unconscious mind that is responsible for suppressing unconscious thoughts and wishes.
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The American Heritage® Stedman's Medical Dictionary
Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company.