Crossword clues for bowdlerize
bowdlerize
The Collaborative International Dictionary
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; to remove morally objectionable parts; -- said of literary texts.
Syn: bowdlerise, expurgate, shorten, cut.
It is a grave defect in the splendid tale of Tom
Jones . . . that a Bowdlerized version of it would
be hardly intelligible as a tale.
--F. Harrison.
[1913 Webster] -- Bowd`ler*i*za"tion, n. --
Bowd"ler*ism, n.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
1836, from Thomas Bowdler (1754-1825), English editor who in 1818 published a notorious expurgated Shakespeare, in which, according to his frontispiece, "nothing is added to the original text; but those words and expressions omitted which cannot with propriety be read aloud in a family." Related: Bowdlerized; bowdlerizing.
Wiktionary
vb. To remove or alter those parts of a text considered offensive, vulgar, or otherwise unseemly.
WordNet
v. edit by omitting or modifying parts considered indelicate; "bowdlerize a novel" [syn: bowdlerise, expurgate, castrate, shorten]
Usage examples of "bowdlerize".
The news was too important, the need for a prompt and appropriate response too critical, for the relevant information to wend its way to the Chief Executive by means of the usual ruthlessly distilled and bowdlerized written report.
Ferdinand, she Miranda, in a bowdlerized version ofThe Tempest in which both sex and Caliban had been minimized.
The news was too important, the need for a prompt and appropriate response too critical, for the relevant information to wend its way to the Chief Executive by means of the usual ruthlessly distilled and bowdlerized written report.
All this footage had been bowdlerized, on the set, for hotel use, with a strategic lampshade here, a fruit bowl there.
The only thing he bowdlerized was the ballad, and that only because his publisher was prudish.
The diagnosis, delivered over the phone to a largely uncomprehending Milton and then bowdlerized by him for Tessie’s benefit, amounted to a vague concern about the formation of my urinary tract along with a possible hormonal deficiency.
They’d acted together, in the last of Adelia’s garden theatricals—he’d been Ferdinand, she Miranda, in a bowdlerized version ofThe Tempest in which both sex and Caliban had been minimized.
Burmese Days (published in America before being published in a slightly bowdlerized form in England, 1934).
Only by bowdlerizing McCarthy's message can liberals make it look like he failed.
As best he could, bowdlerizing only slightly, he recounted the conversation he'd had with the group captain.
At the risk of bowdlerizing the piece, I'll just mention that it's about this guy whose higher thought processes become involved in a conflict of interest with his brainstem.