Thesaurus.com
Dictionary.com
Showing results for bowdlerize. Search instead for bowdlerised.
Definitions

bowdlerize

[bohd-luh-rahyz, boud-] / ˈboʊd ləˌraɪz, ˈbaʊd- /
VERB
censor
Synonyms


Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

See Examples For:

Apparently, to bowdlerize Coco Chanel, elegance really has been refusal.

From Los Angeles Times Jul. 18, 2018

To bowdlerize Benjamin Franklin, in this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death, taxes, and Arsenal finishing in the top four.

From The Guardian Apr. 26, 2017

The rush to bowdlerize  what Biden had said turned  a glancing tap of the bruise into a grinding fist.

From Slate May 9, 2012

Ives managed to talk 20th Century-Fox out of tampering with The Blue-Tail Fly, though he did have to bowdlerize his other favorite, Foggy, Foggy Dew, an old Irish ballad.

From Time Magazine Archive

I have no wish to bowdlerize Sir Richard Steele, his ways and words. 

From Essays by Alice Christiana Thompson Meynell

Yet Brice, knowing all that, still adored him, which makes a far more interesting tale than the bowdlerized one the show offers, of a duped woman finally and regretfully seeing the light.

From New York Times Apr. 24, 2022

Also, and not incidentally, the river is named for the tribe whose chief’s bowdlerized name became that of the city.

From Seattle Times Jul. 2, 2020

Charlotte bowdlerized one of Emily’s poems and tried to spin Emily as a primitive in her introduction to the 1850 reissue of her sisters’ novels.

From Washington Post Feb. 24, 2016

Huang yelled, frustrated that the show had bowdlerized his story, which included whippings by his father, an immigrant restaurant owner.

From The New Yorker Mar. 2, 2015

"Mhudi" was published by the missionary press at Lovedale in 1930, in a somewhat bowdlerized version.

From Native Life in South Africa by Sol (Solomon Tshekisho) Plaatje

I also don’t think he was consciously bowdlerizing the song to make it more ‘‘appropriate’’ for me.

From New York Times Oct. 14, 2015

When Televisa tried bowdlerizing the footage with a pro-government spin, he destroyed the tape and resigned, effectively blacklisting himself.

From New York Times Sep. 25, 2015

All the candidates have taken what was once a very specific ideology and extracted their favorite parts, selectively interpreting the vision and generally bowdlerizing it.

From Washington Post May 15, 2015

Note that, in railing against the bowdlerizing of the film's language, Ebert censored himself.

From Time Apr. 4, 2011

But despite bowdlerizing content, my family has been entirely faithful about visiting.

From "Water for Elephants" by Sara Gruen




Vocabulary lists containing bowdlerize


Vocabulary.com logo
by dictionary.com

Dictionary.com's Learning Companion

Go beyond just looking up words.
Remember them forever with VocabTrainer.

Start training