denaturalize

especially British, de·nat·u·ral·ise

[dee-nach-er-uh-lahyz]

verb (used with object)

denaturalized, denaturalizing 

1. to deprive of proper or true nature; make unnatural.

2. to deprive of the rights and privileges of citizenship or of naturalization.

denaturalize

/ diːˈnætʃrəˌlaɪz /

verb

1. to deprive of nationality

2. to make unnatural

Other Word Forms

• denaturalization noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of denaturalize¹

First recorded in 1790–1800; de- + naturalize

Example Sentences

Trump will have to start deporting legal immigrants and, quite likely, "denaturalizing" citizens to get anywhere close to that goal.

Read more on Salon

As attorney general, Mr. Civiletti successfully argued before the Supreme Court for the government’s right to denaturalize Nazi war criminals.

Read more on New York Times

Fewer than 150 people had been denaturalized in American courts in the previous 50 years, almost all of them Nazis, war criminals or people who were convicted of federal crimes tied to large-scale immigration fraud.

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The anarchist Emma Goldman was denaturalized in 1909, and shipped to Revolutionary Russia a decade later.

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His denaturalization task force, for instance, was about “denaturalizing people who should not have been naturalized in the first place,” he said.

Read more on The New Yorker