Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Proselytize \Pros"e*ly*tize\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. proselytized; p. pr. & vb. n. Proselytizing.] To convert to some religion, system, opinion, or the like; to bring, or cause to come, over; to proselyte.
One of those whom they endeavor to proselytize.
--Burke.
Proselytize \Pros"e*ly*tize\, v. i. To make converts or proselytes.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
1670s, "to make proselytes," from proselyte + -ize. Related: Proselytized; proselytizing.
Wiktionary
vb. 1 (context intransitive English) To encourage or induce people to join a religious movement, political party, or other cause or organization. 2 (context transitive English) To convert (someone) to one’s own faith or beliefs.
WordNet
v. convert to another faith or religion [syn: proselytise]
Usage examples of "proselytize".
Autenticos, like the Audubon Ballroom, were willing to send organizers back into slavery to proselytize from within.
Ehretan ancestors had disqualified themselves to proselytize when they gene-altered their children.
While many of the ARPA investigators were still complaining about how the network might steal their scarce computer resources, Engelbart saw it as an opportunity to proselytize his ideas as well as develop a far greater user community for the NLS software.
I can truly say he never uttered one word, or made the least attempt, to proselytize me.
This also runs against the very deepest grain of Western man who, for five hundred years and more, has been proselytizing men all over the world in the vain hope of making them over into his own beloved image.
No will-to-power, no barbarian instincts, no criminals, no superiority feelings, no Messianic ideas, no unpeaceable men, no programs of action, no proselytizing, no ambition, no economics above the personal level, no foreigners, no race, no ideas.
And because of his Bay Area proselytizing for a Buddhist seminary, many had met him personally and were all in awe of his soft-spoken power.
Catholic operation, threatened the independence of all American religions with its proselytizing and its goal of overrunning the country.
Madren, few in Gyronlandt held to their religion with any great proselytizing zeal.
The members of the order, all of whom were charged with spreading the good word by whatever means seemed good to them, had learned decades ago that their proselytizing was often resented, and had substituted technology for personal salesmanship wherever possible.
The only solution, the theocrats decided, was to ban proselytizing all together.
Skittles, everything set in a bed of plucked ferns so that the spot now looked like a holy site for animists recently proselytized.
The proselytizing coach gives Mark a Dexter Aluminum target arrow with a nock of Port Orford cedar.
The only solution, the theocrats decided, was to ban proselytizing all together.
Obsle haggles and dickers with his fellow Commensals, Yegey employs blandishments, Slose proselytizes, and the strength of their following grows.