bowdlerize
Verb
- edit by omitting or modifying parts considered indelicate
- "bowdlerize a novel"
- To remove or alter those parts of a text considered offensive, vulgar, or otherwise unseemly.
Examples
- The bowdlerized version of the novel, while free of vulgarity, was also free of flavor.
Origin / 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.”
Synonyms
Scrabble Score: 25
bowdlerize: valid Scrabble (US) TWL Wordbowdlerize: valid Scrabble Word in Merriam-Webster MW Dictionary
bowdlerize: valid Scrabble Word in International Collins CSW Dictionary
Words With Friends Score: 27
bowdlerize: valid Words With Friends Word