bowdlerize

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

Nor do they wish to bowdlerize the bawdier passages reproduced in the script.

From Time Magazine Archive

Later, when the novel appeared in book form, the Comstocks began an action to have it suppressed, and forced the publisher to bowdlerize it.

From A Book of Prefaces by H. L. (Henry Louis) Mencken

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

But their similarities, which are marked, reflect a narrow, bowdlerized view of modern American history with which Robin Bissell, the writer and director of “The Best of Enemies,” is positioning the film.

From The New Yorker ● Apr. 4, 2019

Since its publication in 1862, Victor Hugo’s masterpiece has been pirated, doctored, distorted, bowdlerized and flat-out betrayed by publishers, translators, filmmakers and musical impresarios from around the globe.

From New York Times ● Apr. 6, 2017

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

"Well, a bowdlerized version of it would run: 'Professor Challenger presents his compliments to the President of the Zoological Institute, and would take it as a personal favor if he would go to the devil.'"

From The Lost World by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

But, as Samartzis admitted with a grin, bowdlerizing wind from the breeziest place in the world wasn’t very authentic.

From New York Times ● Mar. 16, 2023

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

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