scandalize
Americanverb (used with object)
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to shock or horrify by something considered immoral or improper.
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Nautical. to spill the wind from or reduce the exposed area of (a sail) in an unusual manner.
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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scandalizesimple
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scandalizessimple
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have scandalizedperfect
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has scandalizedperfect
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am scandalizingprogressive
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are scandalizingprogressive
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is scandalizingprogressive
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have been scandalizingperfect progressive
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has been scandalizingperfect progressive
Past
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scandalizedsimple
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had scandalizedperfect
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was scandalizingprogressive
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were scandalizingprogressive
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had been scandalizingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of scandalize
1480–90; < Late Latin scandalizāre < Late Greek skandalízein. See scandal, -ize
Vocabulary lists containing scandalize
List 8
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List 9
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Vocabulary from Readings 3, Unit 3
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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.
See Examples For:
It is a risky undertaking—one that will probably scandalize the purists—but it is also a profoundly literary one.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 24, 2026
Public Image Ltd., also known as PiL, did not scandalize polite society in Britain as the Sex Pistols had with their haute-guttersnipe fashion sense, obscenity-laced television tirades and unceasing potshots at the queen.
From New York Times ● Nov. 18, 2022
So when these powerful figures scandalize us, we lose our faith in our social world, or in our capacity to govern it.
From Slate ● Aug. 26, 2020
The question is no longer whether the latest revelation will scandalize Jim Bob sitting in a truck stop, but whether or not it's legally substantive evidence to be included in articles of impeachment.
From Salon ● Oct. 18, 2019
“You know I cain’t go, Hoyt. It would scandalize the town.”
From "Cold Sassy Tree" by Olive Ann Burns
An expression should never be banned for just being extremely offensive, regardless of whether it scandalizes a religious or any other type of cherished concept.
From Washington Post ● Jun. 19, 2022
Instead of treating them like the NFL’s beneficent owner-demigods, responsible for the league’s and players’ fortunes, college football instead ignores, scandalizes, and criminalizes any serious valuation of its athletes.
From Slate ● Dec. 1, 2020
Equally noteworthy are Georgia's "My Happy Family," a fine naturalistic examination of a 50-something woman whose desire to live alone scandalizes her patriarchal culture.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 19, 2017
Their affair scandalizes the Jewish section, who act as self-appointed sympathizers with Rose's invalid mother.
From Time Magazine Archive
It scandalizes the biographers that the Prince, on one occasion, made La Bruyère dance a pas seul before him, twanging a tune on the guitar.
From Three French Moralists and The Gallantry of France by Gosse, Edmund
The group quieted down like scandalized school children.
From Salon ● May 29, 2026
From the point that his “Nude Descending a Staircase” scandalized the American art world in 1913, Duchamp’s influence on modernism was undeniable.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 5, 2026
It became a hit at the same time as it scandalized the country.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 28, 2025
This is how invisibility operates: Things that scandalized us four months ago fail to penetrate today.
From Slate ● May 21, 2025
The women in the queue are muttering, intrigued or scandalized or both.
From "All the Light We Cannot See" by Anthony Doerr
It’s easy to adore the star in the mid-to-late 1950s when he’s young and svelte, scandalizing and delighting America with his wiggly hips, popularizing a new sound dubbed rock ‘n’ roll.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 24, 2026
He and Bosland said the charges were aiding and abetting breaches of the suppression order by international media, breaching the suppression order, scandalizing the court and sub judice contempt.
From Washington Post ● Feb. 28, 2019
Bertram, a bachelor pastor on Long Island who was scandalizing locals with his “daring riding, fashionable dress, and manner of conducting his church.”
From Slate ● Mar. 22, 2018
Tennis was perhaps never more popular than when McEnroe and Connors were scandalizing the sport’s old guard.
From New York Times ● Aug. 25, 2016
Even as thou art scandalizing others, thine own nature is being abased, whilst those whom thou dost backbite remain the same.
From The Silver Lining A Guernsey Story by Roussel, John
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.
