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bowdlerize - 4 dictionary results
bowd⋅ler⋅ize
[bohd-luh-rahyz, boud-]
–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
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
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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Link To bowdlerize
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
Cite This Source
Bowdlerize
Bowd"ler*ize\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Bowdlerized; p. pr. & vb. n. Bowdlerizing.] [After Dr. Thomas Bowdler, an English physician, who published an expurgated edition of Shakespeare in 1818.] To expurgate, as a book, by omitting or modifying the parts considered offensive. It is a grave defect in the splendid tale of Tom Jones . . . that a Bowlderized version of it would be hardly intelligible as a tale. --F. Harrison. -- Bowd`ler*i*za"tion, n. -- Bowd"ler*ism, n.
Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc.
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bowdlerize
1836, from Thomas Bowdler (1754-1825), English editor who in 1818 published a notorious expurgated Shakespeare, "in which those words and expressions are omitted which cannot with propriety be read aloud in a family."
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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