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vulgarize

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

English

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Alternative forms

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Etymology

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From vulgar +‎ -ize.

Pronunciation

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  • Audio (US):(file)

Verb

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vulgarize (third-person singular simple present vulgarizes, present participle vulgarizing, simple past and past participle vulgarized)

  1. To make vulgar.
    1. To make commonplace, crass, lewd.
      • 1912, Arthur Conan Doyle, The Lost World [], London; New York, N.Y.: Hodder and Stoughton, →OCLC:
        With much labor we got our things up the steps, and then, looking back, took one last long survey of that strange land, soon I fear to be vulgarized, the prey of hunter and prospector, but to each of us a dreamland of glamour and romance, a land where we had dared much, suffered much, and learned much - our land, as we shall ever fondly call it.
      • 1915, Virginia Woolf, The Voyage Out[1]:
        "Yes," said Mr. Flushing. "And in my opinion," he continued, "the absence of population to which Hirst objects is precisely the significant touch. You must admit, Hirst, that a little Italian town even would vulgarise the whole scene, would detract from the vastness — the sense of elemental grandeur."
      • 1920, Edward Carpenter, Pagan and Christian Creeds, New York: Harcourt, Brace and Co., published 1921, page 167:
        Words only vulgarize love and blunt its edge.
    2. To convert (religious rites) so as to use the vulgate (language of the commoners).

Synonyms

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Antonyms

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Translations

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Portuguese

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Verb

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vulgarize

  1. inflection of vulgarizar:
    1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
    2. third-person singular imperative