idealize
Americanverb (used with object)
verb (used without object)
verb
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to consider or represent (something) as ideal
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(tr) to portray as ideal; glorify
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(intr) to form an ideal or ideals
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Conjugated Forms
Present
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have idealizedperfect
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has idealizedperfect 3rd person singular
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am idealizingprogressive 1st person singular
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has been idealizingperfect progressive 3rd person singular
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have been idealizingperfect progressive
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idealizingparticiple
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are idealizingprogressive
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is idealizingprogressive 3rd person singular
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idealizessingular 3rd person
Past
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had idealizedperfect
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was idealizingprogressive singular
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were idealizingprogressive plural
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had been idealizingperfect progressive
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idealizedsimple
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idealizedparticiple
Future
Etymology
Origin of idealize
Explanation
When you idealize something, you think of it as being much better than it really is. You might idealize your beach vacation, completely forgetting that it rained almost every day. If you idealize your favorite teacher, you imagine that he's even more wonderful than he actually is. Many people tend to idealize marriage, believing that simply being married will make them and their partners blissfully happy all the time. To idealize is to take an ordinary, flawed thing, and turn it into something ideal. In fact, ideal, or "perfect," is at the heart of idealize, with its root of the Latin idealis, or "existing in idea."
Vocabulary lists containing idealize
When Fake is Real: Young People Rebel Against Instagram, Via Instagram
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"A Village After Dark" by Kazuo Ishiguro
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Life As We Knew It
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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.
With a book by Jessie Nelson adapted from Adrienne Shelly‘s film script, “Waitress” has a humanizing matter-of-factness about tropes that other theatrical stories about women often idealize.
From Los Angeles Times • Nov. 29, 2023
A number of Googlers I spoke with framed January’s job cuts—which took place via email—as a wake-up call for Googlers who still idealize their employer.
From Slate • Feb. 9, 2023
“They idealize a world where the right kinds of people participate,” Perry said.
From Washington Post • Mar. 18, 2022
“It’s far too easy to idealize one party and villainize another. It’s not the case that every off-road vehicle user is a bad guy, and not every environmentalist is automatically virtuous.”
From Seattle Times • Jan. 17, 2022
Not much to idealize when you know your aunt is crying herself to sleep next door and nothing can be done.
From "Where Things Come Back" by John Corey Whaley
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.
