Definitions
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- verb same as
bowdlerize .
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- verb Alternative form of
bowdlerize .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- verb edit by omitting or modifying parts considered indelicate
Etymologies
Sorry, no etymologies found.
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Examples
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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.
France and the Republic A Record of Things Seen and Learned in the French Provinces During the 'Centennial' Year 1889 William Henry Hurlbert 1861
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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.
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You will have to be brave, the temptation to bowdlerise his life is strong.
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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.
Archive 2007-11-01 Hal Duncan 2007
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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.
I Am Beowulf! You're Going Daaaaahn! Hal Duncan 2007
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He understood that at that theatre they did not bowdlerise.
The Silver Spoon 2004
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It was, however, subjected to some criticism and ridicule, and gave rise to the expression “bowdlerise,” always used in an opprobrious sense.
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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.
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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 Telegraph Staff 2011
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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 2010
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