bowdlerize
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.
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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 cannot, unfortunately, bowdlerize the best of these without spoiling them, so I will endeavor to give a few examples of the less forceful.
From Reminiscences of a South African Pioneer by W. C. (William Charles) Scully
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
These are not fantasy images — not bowdlerized, not even especially flattering — and they do not aim for the smiling “Say cheese” millisecond beloved by family photographers.
From New York Times ● Apr. 16, 2016
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
The text was bowdlerized by Chambers, but the book contained much new and valuable information.
From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 4, Part 4 "Bulgaria" to "Calgary" by Various
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
Vocabulary lists containing bowdlerize
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Ten Words from Today's NY Times - May 9, 2012
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