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

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

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

In most of these entertainments, though, the animals primarily come across as people in cutesy, bowdlerized animal drag.

From New York Times ● Nov. 17, 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

The book also expertly spoofs creative-class bullshit, bowdlerized theory filtered through millennial upspeak.

From The New Yorker ● May 21, 2019

The doctrine, as we all know, comes down — in its bowdlerized version — to not doing “stupid stuff.”

From Washington Post ● Apr. 4, 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

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