Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Sentimentalize \Sen`ti*men"tal*ize\, v. t. To regard in a sentimental manner; as, to sentimentalize a subject.
Sentimentalize \Sen`ti*men"tal*ize\, v. i.
To think or act in a sentimental manner, or like a
sentimentalist; to affect exquisite sensibility.
--C.
Kingsley.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
1764, intransitive, "indulge in sentiments," from sentimental + -ize. Meaning "to make sentimental" (transitive) is from 1813. Related: Sentimentalized; sentimentalizing.\n\nThink on these things, and let S______ go to Lincoln sessions by himself, and talk classically with country justices. In the meantime we will philosophize and sentimentalize;
--the last word is a bright invention of the moment in which it was written, for yours or Dr. Johnson's service .... [Laurence Sterne, letter to William Combe, Esq., dated Aug. 5, 1764, published 1787] \n
Wiktionary
vb. 1 (context transitive English) To give a sentimental feel to. 2 (context intransitive English) To think or act in a sentimental manner, or like a sentimentalist; to affect exquisite sensibility.
WordNet
v. look at with sentimentality or turn into an object of sentiment; "Don't sentimentalize the past events" [syn: sentimentalise]
make (someone or something) sentimental or imbue with sentimental qualities; "Too much poetry sentimentalizes the mind"; "These experiences have sentimentalized her" [syn: sentimentalise]
act in a sentimental way or indulge in sentimental thoughts or expression [syn: sentimentalise, sentimentize, sentimentise]
Usage examples of "sentimentalize".
They recalled the hot morning, when they sauntered over the trodden weed that covered the sickly grass-plots there, and sentimentalized the sweltering paupers who had crept out of the squalid tenements about for a breath of air after a sleepless night.
Nevertheless, she adopted easily this sentimentalized view of her marriage.
They recalled the hot morning, when they sauntered over the trodden weed that covered the sickly grass-plots there, and sentimentalized the sweltering paupers who had crept out of the squalid tenements about for a breath of air after a sleepless night.
Most of them were stultifying horse operas-rural colonial melodramas-or sentimentalized war stories.
She had never known why softs sentimentalized mementos, old holos, and data chips containing communiqués and journals.