bowd·ler·ize
Audio Help [bohd-luh-rahyz, boud-] Pronunciation Key
—Related forms
Audio Help [bohd-luh-rahyz, boud-] Pronunciation Key –verb (used with object), -ized, -iz·ing.
| to expurgate (a written work) by removing or modifying passages considered vulgar or objectionable. |
Also, especially British, bowd·ler·ise.
[Origin: 1830–40; after Thomas Bowdler (1754–1825), English editor of an expurgated edition of Shakespeare
]
] —Related forms
bowd·ler·ism, noun
bowd·ler·i·za·tion, noun
bowd·ler·iz·er, noun
| Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1) Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2006. |
Bowdlerizing
To learn more about Bowdlerizing visit Britannica.com
| © 2008 Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. |
| bowd·ler·ize
Audio Help (bōd'lə-rīz', boud'-) Pronunciation Key
tr.v. bowd·ler·ized, bowd·ler·iz·ing, bowd·ler·iz·es To remove material that is considered offensive or objectionable from (a book, for example). [After Thomas Bowdler (1754-1825), who published an expurgated edition of Shakespeare in 1818.] bowd'ler·ism n., bowd'ler·i·za'tion (-lər-ĭ-zā'shən) n., bowd'ler·iz'er n. |
| The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2006 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. |
bowdlerizing [(bohd-luh-reye-zing, bowd-luh-reye-zing)]
Amending a book by removing passages and words deemed obscene or objectionable (see obscenity). The name comes from Thomas Bowdler's 1818 edition of the plays of William Shakespeare, which was amended so that it could “be read aloud in a family.”
[Chapter:] Conventions of Written English
| The American Heritage® New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. |
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