Bowdlerizing - Definitions from Dictionary.com

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Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1) - Cite This Source - Share This

bowd·ler·ize

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.

Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
Bowdlerizing

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American Heritage Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

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.

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American Heritage New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition - Cite This Source - Share This
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

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