fetishize
Americanverb (used with object)
verb
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of fetishize
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:
We’ve been taught to fetishize our suffering and villainize our joy — that working toward a long-term goal should feel like work.
From MarketWatch ● Mar. 27, 2026
On this week’s Amicus podcast, he explained to Dahlia Lithwick that the inclination to fetishize that which can be justified legally has a way of opening the door to atrocities that cannot be tolerated.
From Slate ● Feb. 3, 2026
It’s a screed against the worst kind of rich, those who fetishize the working class to pander to them.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 8, 2024
Instead, they fetishize a sanitized version of 19th-century European culture.
From Salon ● Dec. 18, 2023
“You can almost fetishize its details,” said Elizabeth Marlowe, director of the museum studies program at Colgate University.
From New York Times ● Jun. 12, 2023
The company has historically fetishized refinement, isolation and effortlessness—summed up in the company’s favorite word, “waftability.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 4, 2026
"Autism is fetishized in many ways, especially for autistic women," King said.
From Salon ● Sep. 22, 2024
Movies and TV shows have fetishized close friendship to the point that the real, often fraught rhythms of such relationships have been lost.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 5, 2024
“Cowboy Bebop” was a cult-favorite Japanese animated series that fetishized cool American jazz and film noir and Hollywood westerns, and in 2021 Netflix returned the cultural homage by making an American live-action adaptation.
From New York Times ● Aug. 31, 2023
His issue with nonviolence comes when it is fetishized to the exclusion of other methods; a problem that he sees in the current climate movement.
From Slate ● Apr. 15, 2023
“The page wasn’t about fetishizing women,” says Rosales, “and the audience was a little thrown by that.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 9, 2026
As is the case with most pop culture curiosa, “Shōgun” only deserves partial credit or blame for escalating America’s fetishizing of Japanese style and customs.
From Salon ● Mar. 8, 2024
Fashion, in particular, has been a chronic offender, fetishizing millennials and tapping a foot while waiting for the olds to pack up and check into a home.
From New York Times ● Jan. 18, 2022
No one can accuse the bill’s authors of fetishizing quality, though: The Bolt is under recall, due to its batteries’ dangerous tendency to catch fire.
From Washington Post ● Sep. 28, 2021
At any rate, this interest of yours seems less about fetishizing a race than carrying a torch.
From Slate ● Aug. 23, 2021
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Get a wordDefinitions 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.
