bowdlerized
Made family-friendly
Bowdlerized means censored or sanitized by removing content considered offensive, vulgar, or otherwise objectionable.
The word comes from Thomas Bowdler, who published an 1818 edition of Shakespeare with sexual references and profanity excised.
A bowdlerized version strips away the rough parts: The TV broadcast was a bowdlerized cut of the film.
The term usually carries disapproval—implying something has been neutered or made insipid through excessive caution.
Officially removed from view
- sanitizedCleansed of contaminants
- editedAltered for improvement
- censoredSuppressed from publication
- suppressedForcibly held down
omitted · deleted · excised · purged · cut · abridged · blue-penciled · restricted
Elizabethan dramatist and poet
- Thomas BowdlerEditor who removed impropriety
- Family ShakespeareCensored theatrical works compilation
- unexpurgatedNot cleansed of objectionable content
- originalFirst or inventive
restored · uncut · uncensored · authentic · intact · complete · scholarly · annotated
Changed in some way
- revisedChanged after reconsideration
- amendedChanged to improve
- adaptedMade fit for purpose
- reworkedAltered after initial attempt
rewritten · watered-down · softened · toned-down · tamed · defanged · neutered · diluted
Excessively concerned with propriety
- puritanicalExcessively strict about morals
- priggishSmugly self-righteous
- VictorianOf a prim era
- primAffectedly proper and stiff
proper · squeamish · strait-laced · preachy · sanctimonious · holier-than-thou · self-righteous · didactic
redacted
Officially removed from view
suppressed · omitted · deleted · excised · purged · cut · abridged · blue-penciled · restricted · forbidden
Shakespeare
Elizabethan dramatist and poet
- Thomas BowdlerEditor who removed impropriety
- Family ShakespeareCensored theatrical works compilation
- unexpurgatedNot cleansed of objectionable content
original · restored · uncut · uncensored · authentic · intact · complete · scholarly · annotated
modified
Changed in some way
reworked · rewritten · watered-down · softened · toned-down · tamed · defanged · neutered · diluted · weakened
prudish
Excessively concerned with propriety
- puritanicalExcessively strict about morals
- priggishSmugly self-righteous
- VictorianOf a prim era
prim · proper · squeamish · strait-laced · preachy · sanctimonious · holier-than-thou · self-righteous · didactic · moralistic
- censorshipbanned books, censored, banned, book banning, book bans
- alteredmodified, changed, altered, edited, revised
- falsifiedfalsified, doctored, fabricated, fake, faked
- sugarcoatedsugarcoated, candy-coated, sweetened, honeyed, sugary
- puritypure, purity, pristine, spotless, spotlessness
bowdlerizedunabridged
Not shortened or condensed
uncensored · unexpurgated · unedited · original · complete
bowdlerizedexplicit
Clearly and directly expressed
uncensored · graphic · raw · unexpurgated · profane