Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Scandalize \Scan"dal*ize\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Scandalized; p. pr. & vb. n. Scandalizing.] [F. scandaliser, L. scandalizare, from Gr. skandali`zein.]
-
To offend the feelings or the conscience of (a person) by some action which is considered immoral or criminal; to bring shame, disgrace, or reproach upon.
I demand who they are whom we scandalize by using harmless things.
--Hooker.The congregation looked on in silence, the better class scandalized, and the lower orders, some laughing, others backing the soldier or the minister, as their fancy dictated.
--Sir W. Scott. -
To reproach; to libel; to defame; to slander.
To tell his tale might be interpreted into scandalizing the order.
--Sir W. Scott.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
late 15c., from Middle French scandaliser (12c.), from Church Latin scandalizare, from late Greek skandalizein "to make to stumble; tempt; give offense to (someone)," from skandalon (see scandal). Originally "make a public scandal of;" sense of "shock by doing something improper" first recorded 1640s. Dryden and Shakespeare use simple scandal as a verb. Related: Scandalized; scandalizing; scandalization.
Wiktionary
alt. To shock someone. vb. To shock someone.
WordNet
Usage examples of "scandalize".
It seemed to him that Smytheton scowled even more furiously, and the modiste appeared more than scandalized.
The extravagance of the Grecian mythology proclaimed, with a clear and audible voice, that the pious inquirer, instead of being scandalized or satisfied with the literal sense, should diligently explore the occult wisdom, which had been disguised, by the prudence of antiquity, under the mask of folly and of fable.
McDrone, who was an orthodox proser of the old school, had been rather scandalized to see that old Tibbie Mathieson, who used peacefully to go to sleep every Sunday over his short sermons, kept awake all the time that this young man held forth, though he was not particularly brief.
We will not pretend to say whether Master Prout was more scandalized by the sentiment of dissatisfaction at the colony, or by there proaches lavished on the other goody, who, indeed, to do her justice, was not slow in the use of that formidable weapon wherewith Nature, as if to make amends for physical weakness, has armed the lovelier sex.
But the moderation of the conquerors was insufficient to appease the jealous prejudices of their subjects, who were alarmed and scandalized at the ensigns of paganism, which necessarily introduced themselves into a Roman province.
Epicurus so strangely scandalized the pious ears of the Athenians, that by his exile, and that of his antagonists, they silenced all vain disputes concerning the nature of the gods.
Jacobites, not less than the Catholics, were scandalized by his declaration, that the body of Christ was incorruptible, and that his manhood was never subject to any wants and infirmities, the inheritance of our mortal flesh.
After a fair discussion, we shall rather be surprised by the timidity, than scandalized by the freedom, of our first reformers.
In one of their visits to the city, they were scandalized by the aspect of a mosque or synagogue, in which one God was worshipped, without a partner or a son.
Sorbonne were astonished, and possibly scandalized, by the language, the rites, and the vestments, of his Greek clergy.
She had scandalized society since she had come out, she was only marrying now because she had been unchaste, she had not spoken to him since he had arranged this marriage.
I say, were scandalized at this dreadful presence of death at the birth of new life.
He was outraged, scandalized, overwhelmed, underwhelmed, and finally whelmed.
Our cryptozoologists seemed a bit scandalized when Thena and I insisted on sharing a double at the Sheridan.
An arrangement between Lord Derby and the Peelite financier was much talked of, and scandalized the country.