8 May 2016

bowdlerize

[bohd-luh-rahyz, boud-]

verb (used with object), bowdlerized, bowdlerizing.

1. to expurgate (a written work) by removing or modifying passages considered vulgar or objectionable.

Expand

Also, especially British, bowdlerise.

Origin of bowdlerize

1830-1840; after Thomas Bowdler (1754-1825), English editor of an expurgated edition of Shakespeare

Related forms

bowdlerism, noun
bowdlerization, noun
bowdlerizer, noun
unbowdlerized, adjective

Dictionary.com

Examples from the Web for bowdlerize

Historical Examples

He is in fact one of the few writers of real eminence who have been forced to bowdlerise themselves.
The English Novel
George Saintsbury

Anagram

Deb lore wiz
Robed el wiz
Old beer wiz
Id blew zero

Today’s quote

Today I begin to understand what love must be, if it exists… When we are parted, we each feel the lack of the other half of ourselves. We are incomplete like a book in two volumes of which the first has been lost. That is what I imagine love to be: incompleteness in absence.

– Edmond de Goncourt

On this day

8 May 1911 – birthday of Robert Johnson. American blues guitarist and singer-songwriter. Legend has it that Johnson met the devil at a crossroads and sold his soul in return for fame and fortune. One of the first musicians of the 20th century to join the 27 club. Died 16 August 1938.

8 May 1945 – VE day. Victory in Europe – the day that Nazi Germany formally surrendered in World War II.