bowdlerizing
Sanitizing offensive content
Bowdlerizing is removing or sanitizing content considered offensive, vulgar, or otherwise inappropriate—named for Thomas Bowdler, who published an 1818 edition of Shakespeare with sexual references and profanity excised.
The term typically carries a negative connotation, implying prudish or heavy-handed censorship that diminishes the original work: The studio bowdlerized the film for airline viewing.
Removal of offensive content
- ShakespeareElizabethan dramatist and poet
- classicsWorks of lasting value
- VictorianOf a prim era
- prudishnessExcessive moral strictness
Thomas Bowdler · Family Shakespeare · editing · abridgment · adaptation · revision · anthology · publication
Removing offensive passages
- censoringRemoving objectionable content
- redactingObscuring text for secrecy
- purgingForcible elimination of unwanted
- editingRefining content for clarity
excising · deleting · removing · suppressing · cutting · striking · omitting · blue-penciling
Becoming less firm
- tamingMaking wild things gentle
- defangingRemoving dangerous teeth
- neuteringSurgical sterilization of animals
- dilutingLessening strength by mixing
domesticating · prettifying · sugarcoating · laundering · glossing · euphemizing · moderating · tempering
expurgation
Removal of offensive content
- ShakespeareElizabethan dramatist and poet
- classicsWorks of lasting value
- VictorianOf a prim era
prudishness · Thomas Bowdler · Family Shakespeare · editing · abridgment · adaptation · revision · anthology · publication · propriety
expurgating
Removing offensive passages
- censoringRemoving objectionable content
- redactingObscuring text for secrecy
- purgingForcible elimination of unwanted
editing · excising · deleting · removing · suppressing · cutting · striking · omitting · blue-penciling · cleaning
softening
Becoming less firm
- tamingMaking wild things gentle
- defangingRemoving dangerous teeth
- neuteringSurgical sterilization of animals
diluting · domesticating · prettifying · sugarcoating · laundering · glossing · euphemizing · moderating · tempering · mellowing
- downplayingminimizing, downplay, trivializing, belittling, soft-pedal
bowdlerizinguncensoring
Removing suppression of content
embellishing · sensationalizing · vulgarizing · coarsening · spicing up
sanitizing, bowdlerize, sanitization, bowdlerized, bowdlerization, bowdlerise, bowdlerised