bowdlerize
UK /ˈbaʊd.ləˌɹaɪz/ · US /ˈbaʊd.ləɹˌaɪz/ verb
Forms bowdlerizes bowdlerizing bowdlerized bowdlerise
- verb (transitive) 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.”
Synonyms
Etymology
From Bowdler + -ize; named after English physician Thomas Bowdler (1754–1825). In 1818, he published a censored version of William Shakespeare (The Family Shakespeare), expurgating “those words and expressions […] which cannot with propriety be read aloud in a family.”
Webster’s 1913
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “bowdlerize”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details