Definitions
Wiktionary
- v. To remove those parts of a text considered offensive, vulgar or adult in nature.
- v. To remove those parts of a text considered to be damaging to an authority.
GNU Webster's 1913
- v. same as bowdlerize.
WordNet 3.0
- v. edit by omitting or modifying parts considered indelicate
Examples
“Already the municipal council of Paris has undertaken to 'bowdlerise' the literature of the world in order to prevent the minds of the young from being perverted by coming into contact with the name of God.”
“And she says those who "bowdlerise" children's literature do have good intentions, but they are missing the cultural and historical point of nursery rhymes and fairytales.”
“You will have to be brave, the temptation to bowdlerise his life is strong.”
“Ah, yes, the story of Beowulf's victories will live on forever ... until we bowdlerise it by excising one-third of those victories in a revisionist rewrite where we decide * not* to have him kill Grendel's Mother after all.”
“He understood that at that theatre they did not bowdlerise.”
“It was, however, subjected to some criticism and ridicule, and gave rise to the expression “bowdlerise,” always used in an opprobrious sense.”
“The Live 8 solution of 2005 was designed not to get us to send in our money to bowdlerise Mr. Geldof, but to raise awareness and educate the public.”
“But critical taste slavers for "live certs" - transient celebrities, basically, whose final outline has still to be determined and further, who have the power to bowdlerise or censor any attempt on their lives.”
Telegraph.co.uk - Telegraph online, Daily Telegraph and Sunday Telegraph
“Nobody tried to bowdlerise it to make it politically correct: we were taught to criticise the text as written for better or for worse.”
Politics news, UK and world political comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk
“Did she attempt to manscape him on this occasion, or did she limit herself to one of those emotionalised celebrity accounts that, at best, offensively bowdlerise the aid debate and, at worst, suggest we have precisely zero interest in solving these problems?”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘bowdlerise’.
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set phasers to...
you name the setting
I've tuned mine to be gentler and kinder
following suit is not mandatory but would be appreciatedcoddle, confuse, flummox, tap, furrow, instigate, invigorate, punnify, logical, must... act... be..., bowdlerise, laughing gas and 419 more...
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cicatrix
scar tissue
minatory, naira, Cluniac, embracive, prolix, hierophant, timorous, adduce, veracious, dysphoric, sang-froid, vitiate and 414 more...
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The Greatest
Woooo!!
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