Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- transitive verb To impart a spiritual nature to.
- transitive verb To invest with or treat as having a spiritual sense or meaning.
from The Century Dictionary.
- To make spiritual, or more spiritual; elevate above what is worldly or bodily.
- To infuse spirituality or life into; inform with spirit or life; animate.
- To draw a spiritual meaning from, or impart a spiritual meaning to; as, to
spiritualize a text of Scripture. - In chem.:
- To extract spirit from.
- To convert into spirit, or impart the properties of spirit to. Also spelled
spiritualise .
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- transitive verb To refine intellectiually or morally; to purify from the corrupting influence of the world; to give a spiritual character or tendency to.
- transitive verb To give a spiritual meaning to; to take in a spiritual sense; -- opposed to
literalize . - transitive verb (Old Chem.) To extract spirit from; also, to convert into, or impregnate with, spirit.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- verb To make
spiritual ; to invokespirituality . - verb To
refine intellectually or morally; topurify from the corrupting influence of the world; to give a spiritual character or tendency to. - verb To give a spiritual meaning to; to take in a spiritual sense; opposed to
literalize . - verb chemistry, obsolete To
extract spirit . - verb chemistry, obsolete To
convert into, orimpregnate with, spirit.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- verb give a spiritual meaning to; read in a spiritual sense
- verb elevate or idealize, in allusion to Christ's transfiguration
- verb purify from the corrupting influences of the world
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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You simply can't think your way out of it, or "spiritualize" your way our of it.
A Proud Racist? Steven Barnes 2010
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The convenient thing in the traditional Christian Tradition is their distance from their revelations, they can try and "spiritualize" things like the flood or the miracles.
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How does Hope "spiritualize" the earth, i.e., make it purer?
The Elson Readers, Book 5 Christine M. Keck
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“The function of the state is to enlighten, to develop, to increase, to fortify, to spiritualize, and to sanctify the soul of a nation.”
Matthew Yglesias » The Senate’s Underpants Gnome Problem 2010
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They might spiritualize the prophesy and say that something spiritual happened that can't be seen, but nevertheless the prophecy was fulfilled," says Catherine Wessinger, a professor of religious studies at Loyola University New Orleans, who has written about apocalyptic movements."
End of World Prophecy Attracts Followers, Provokes Ridicule 2011
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They might spiritualize the prophesy and say that something spiritual happened that can't be seen, but nevertheless the prophecy was fulfilled," says Catherine Wessinger, a professor of religious studies at Loyola University New Orleans, who has written about apocalyptic movements."
End of World Prophecy Attracts Followers, Provokes Ridicule 2011
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They hyper-spiritualize everything, and this story of Mary and Martha is one of the classic ones that she meditates on a lot.
The Better Part 2008
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The distinctive human problem from time immemorial has been the need to spiritualize human life, to lift it onto a special immortal plane, beyond the cycles of life and death that characterize all other organisms.
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"Pacioli believed that stereotomy, the careful 'geometrizing' of stone through cutting and polishing, could transmute and spiritualize lowly matter, evoking St. John's Heavenly Jersualem made of 'pure gold resembling pure glass.'"
Architecture and Memory: The Renaissance Studioli of Federico da Montefeltro 2008
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One place to begin is a closer examination of the root experiences which have typically led philosophers and theologians to spiritualize the universe.
Why I am Not a Pantheist (Nor a Panentheist): Metaphysics, Totalization, and the Cosmos By Jonathan Weidenbaum William Harryman 2009
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