vitriolize

English

Etymology

Compare French vitrioliser.

Verb

vitriolize (third-person singular simple present vitriolizes, present participle vitriolizing, simple past and past participle vitriolized)

1. (transitive, dated) To convert into a vitriol; to vitriolate.
2. (transitive, dated) To injure (a person) with sulfuric acid, as by throwing it upon the face.
3. (transitive, dated) To poison with vitriol.
   • 2008, Lincoln Geraghty, Mark Jancovich, The Shifting Definitions of Genre, page 99:

     Similarly, Something for Everyone was described as “an innocent seeming piece of Bavarian chocolate that has been vitriolized by hypodermic injection.”

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for “vitriolize”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.)