bowdlerize

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see also: Bowdlerize

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Pronunciation

• (British) IPA: /ˈbaʊd.lə.ˌɹaɪz/

Verb

bowdlerize (bowdlerizes, present participle bowdlerizing; past and past participle bowdlerized)

1. To remove or alter those parts of a text considered offensive, vulgar, or otherwise unseemly.

   The bowdlerized version of the novel, while free of vulgarity, was also free of flavor.

   • Ogilvy pursued his own topic. "I'm inclined to think, Stanley, myself that as a matter of fact it was the expurgated Romeo and Juliet did the mischief. . . . All they left it was the moon and stars. And the balcony and ‘My Romeo!’"

   "Shakespeare is altogether different from the modern stuff. Altogether different. I'm not discussing Shakespeare. I don't want to Bowdlerize Shakespeare."

   "You don't say?"

   "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.’"

2. 1961, J. A. Philip, "Mimesis in the Sophistês of Plato," Transactions and Proceedings of the American Philological Association, vol. 92, p. 455:

   His critics take alarm only when it becomes apparent that he would bowdlerize Homer and exclude from his state the great tragedians.

Translations

• French: censurer
• German: zensieren
• Italian: censurare
• Portuguese: censurar, expurgar
• Russian: цензури́ровать
• Spanish: censurar, expurgar

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Bowdlerize

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Verb

bowdlerize (bowdlerizes, present participle Bowdlerizing; past and past participle Bowdlerized)

1. Alternative form of bowdlerize

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